Menstruation does not automatically mean Iron Deficiency Anemia!

Lately, I have been learning so much from the Root Cause Protocol as I have gotten into HTMA. I have not dove in completely yet, but I probably will be soon, since there is so much biochemical logic (brings me back to undergrad and chiropractic school) in Dr. Morley’s work!

Here’s a must read by Kate Clancy who de-bunks the popular myth that women engaged in menstruation will develop iron-deficiency anemia.

Read more here.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  If your doctor believes that being female automatically means iron deficient anemia (IDA), which may well be a focal point for reassessing whether that is a relationship that has your best interests at heart.

The more I read, the more I learn about iron overload caused by copper deficiency (as in lack of ceruloplasmin), the more convinced I am that the doctor’s misunderstanding of mineral metabolism is at the base of most, if not all chronic diseases.  It has profound implications for magnesium, copper, calcium, oestrogen, thyroid function etc.

Copper is the key to the activation of the enzyme needed to make Estrogen. When copper is not so proper, (i.e. lack of the key anti-oxidant, ceruloplasmin) it gets bound to estrogen as it, too, is an anti-oxidant.

So, what is the connection to Iron? Please review this article:

Broderius, M., et al. (2012). “Suppressed hepcidin expression correlates with hypotransferrinemia in copper-deficient rat pups but not dams.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3380187/pdf/12263_2012_Article_293.pdf

There are many switchbacks in that study, but suffice it to say that estrogen has an effect on hepcidin, which affects iron metabolism. I have not sorted this entire mechanism out, as hepcidin works best with proper copper, and I’m still trying to get my head around the estrogen >> hepcidin >> ferroportin angle.

Hope you find this blog as enlightening as I did!