Iron and your blood sugar – An often overlooked factor
When you think of causes of high blood sugar what does your mind turn to?
Is it
A high processed carb, low fibre diet?
Stress?
Hanging on to a bit of extra weight?
All of these things can definitely contribute to high blood sugar. But what if I told you that so could excess iron? Are you shocked? Hopefully it didn’t shock you to the point of stress, because that would raise your blood sugar haha!
Iron and high blood sugar
A 1999 study on US adults found elevated ferritin (stored iron) was associated with a 5-fold increased risk of diabetes for men and 3.6 fold for women, while a 2012 study found this same positive association even after adjusting for many known diabetes risk factors.
Get it? It’s an iron
A 2011 study looked at transferrin saturation (another measure of iron load) and found that levels above 50% increased diabetes risk 2-3 times while also increasing the risk of death.
These are just some of the many papers showing this relationship. Have a search on Google Scholar if you’re still interested.
How?
There are 2 main ways iron impacts on blood sugar. The first is its effect on insulin sensitivity and the second is on the pancreas directly. Let’s look further.
Iron lowers insulin sensitivity
After digesting your meal, the glucose from your food enters your bloodstream, increasing blood glucose. When blood glucose is too high for too long it can damage many structures within the body. For cells to be able to use glucose as energy they need to be able to get it inside them (is this a that’s what she said moment?)!
Enter insulin. The pancreas secretes insulin in response to high blood glucose which attaches to a cell-surface receptor. This allows glucose to enter into the cell, thus lowering blood glucose and allowing the cell to turn it into ATP, cellular energy.
Insulin sensitivity is a measure of how receptive your cells are to the effects of insulin.
When cells are sensitive to insulin, the process works as above, and when they lose their sensitivity things go a bit haywire. Cells don’t respond as well to insulin, and don’t allow glucose into the cells, meaning it stays in the bloodstream causing all manner of ill health effects.
Excess iron has been shown in many studies to lower insulin sensitivity.
For a more in-depth explanation https://www.stefanfilippohealth.com/blog/2019/4/16/insulin-resistance.
Iron and your pancreas
Excess iron damages many of your organs by acting as an oxidizing agent (the opposite of an antioxidant).
These organs include;
Liver
Heart and cardiovascular system
Skin
Brain
And of course the pancreas
Why is this important?
Like we mentioned above, we need insulin to get glucose out of the blood and into the cells, and we need the pancreas to produce and secrete this insulin!
Where to from here?
No need to worry, there are strategies you can implement to help with this.
First step? Get your ferritin levels checked. Are they within the optimal range of 50-70ng/ml for men and 20-40ng/ml for women?
If they’re within this range, great, its likely that iron isn’t a contributor to your high blood sugar. If they’re too high, let’s get to work on lowering them.
Lowering iron
I’ve outlined a simple 5-legged protocol for lowering iron here. Here’s the short version
1. Blood letting
2. Iron chelating (reducing your stored iron)
3. Reducing iron absorption from foods
4. Reduce iron consumption
5. Supporting and repairing the affected organs and systems
I’ve put together some articles on the benefits of blood donation, dietary strategies as well as herbal and supplemental help to reduce iron levels. They’ll be uploaded over the next few weeks, so hold tight.
This process can take some time depending on how high your ferritin is to begin with. So, in the meantime let’s look at some other avenues for lowering your blood sugar.
Other means of lowering blood sugar
Improve insulin sensitivity
Looking after your pancreas
The wonderful Bitter melon
Other strategies such as stress reduction
Concluding thoughts
Getting iron levels under control is just another avenue to look at when improving your blood sugar levels. This is a great way to supplement your existing protocol for lowering your blood sugar.
Have you ever had your iron checked? Have you ever considered lowering your iron?