I recently got a pretty comprehensive blood test done (via marekhealth/labcorb). Mostly no big surprises and in line with what I saw in my annual physical. However, I discovered that I had scary low iron saturation.
I don’t really know why. Everyone asked whether I had recently donated blood — I had not. I think Peter Attia states in one of his AMA podcasts that if you have low ferritin levels the default assumption is that you have colon cancer. Luckily I very recently had the routine colonoscopy every PCP makes 50 year olds have — and the result were clean.
My only guess is that my big change to my nutrition somehow affected my iron value. I wish I had historical numbers but I don’t think I ever got a blood test that included iron saturation.
The moral of the story is: please regularly check your blood work! There are labcorp and Quest locations all over the US and Apple Health can automatically import the results so you have historical record. If any values are out of range educate yourself what they mean and then have an informed conversation with your doctor.
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About Gunnar
Gunnar is 53. He lost about 170 pounds, trains in a garage gym, and writes DadStrengthDaily from personal experience, citing primary sources where he can. He also moderates r/ProactiveHealth. He is not a doctor, and nothing here is medical advice. Talk to your own doctor before acting on anything, especially GLP-1s, TRT, blood pressure, sleep apnea, and cancer screening.