Iron Deficiency, Copper & Ceruloplasmin

Iron is essential for carrying oxygen around the body. Red blood cells contain haemoglobin, a protein that contains iron molecules. These iron molecules are able to pick up oxygen molecules in the lungs and then carry that oxygen around the body and deliver it to the cells. If you don’t have enough iron, you have a reduced capacity to oxygenate the body which can lead to many signs and symptoms:

• Fatigue

• Feeling short of breath or puffed

• Pale skin

• Dark under eyes

• Dizziness or faintness

• Blue lips after swimming

• Pale conjunctiva (pull down the lower eyelid - the inner tissue should be red not pale)

• Rapid or irregular heartbeat

• Brain fog or poor concentration

• Irritability, low mood

• Dry, damaged, breakable hair

• Restless legs

• Pica (eating things that aren’t food)

• Cold hands and feet

• Poor immunity (frequent infections, slow recovery)

• Slow wound healing

If you have sufficient iron-rich foods in the diet, any deficiency would most likely be due to gut inflammation preventing proper absorption. 

If testing shows high iron in the hair but low levels in the blood, this indicates that you are not utilising iron well and may be accumulating excess iron in the tissues instead of using it properly for oxygen transport in the body. When it builds up in the tissues it can oxidise and cause excessive inflammation systemically.

Copper is essential for the utilisation of iron.

Ceruloplasmin is a protein made in the liver that stores and carries copper. Ceruloplasmin also has an essential role in helping iron attach to transferrin so it can be shuttled where it needs to go to create haemoglobin. If you are low in copper, you may not make enough ceruloplasmin, which can then also prevent you utilising your iron properly.

Copper is used to make adrenaline, so stress depletes copper rapidly. If you have low thyroid function, this can reduce copper absorption from digestion, but low copper worsens thyroid function, so it creates a loop that is hard to break.

Increasing wholefood vitamin C is one way to naturally boost your copper intake. The wholefood vitamin C molecule contains copper at its core, whereas ascorbic acid (used in ‘vitamin C’ supplements) is only a shell of this molecule and doesn’t include the copper.