What is an optimal ferritin level?
The short answer
An optimal ferritin level is 45–70 ng/mL. Dr. Mark Hyman puts the floor at 45; Dr. Elizabeth Boham puts the ceiling at 70. You can watch them say it below.
Most labs call ferritin low only under 15. So your report can come back normal at 30 while you sit under the line he draws.
Labs print different ranges by sex: about 15–150 ng/mL for women and 30–400 for men.
“if your your level's under 45 it's going to affect your health even though the reference range on the lab says 16 or above is normal 45 or above should be the normal range or the optimal range”
Where a number lands, and who said so
The rows below use the range labs print for women. For men it is 30–400 ng/mL.
- under 15 ng/mL Most labs flag this as low
- 15–45 ng/mL Normal on most reports. Below optimal“for iron, this is an example, your ferritin level, which is your iron source, should be 45 or more to feel good, to not have fatigue, to not have loss, to not have…” Dr. Mark Hyman · 16:08 →
- 45–70 ng/mL The range Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Elizabeth Boham draw
- 70–150 ng/mL Normal on most reports. Above optimal“ferritin is the marker of iron stores in the body and we want that ferritin in general to be you know around 50 to 70 you don't want it to be too high because…” Dr. Elizabeth Boham · 1:36:56 →
- over 150 ng/mL Most labs flag this as high
What ferritin measures
The protein your body stores iron in. So the test reads your iron reserves, not the iron in circulation.
Stores run down before anaemia shows. That is why fatigue and hair loss can arrive while a blood count still looks fine. It also rises with inflammation.
Checked against MedlinePlus — Ferritin Blood Test.
One of the doctors we cite, on why it matters
“Or a ferritin or iron stores of at 16 is not good. It should be 45. Just between, you know, lower than 45, you'll get hair loss and fatigue and all kinds of sleep issues”
What are the symptoms of low ferritin?
“it really turns out that low iron can in stores like low ferritin can lead to fatigue insomnia hair loss and just other mild symptoms that are often ignored”
“This is fatigue where I can't even walk up the stairs without getting winded.”
“one of one of the things that uh is very closely associated with anxiety is iron deficiency and a very large percentage of women in the world are IR deficient especially those of childbearing age as well as children and in with children and Adolescence iron deficiency is associated with a high level of anxiety”
“false senses and low iron does lead to sleep disruption. Totally. Right. Even if even if your blood count's normal, if you have low feritin, of course. Right. Right. And that's going to happen in over probably 30% of physically active people which people don't realize and doctors usually don't check.”
“when you used to go to the pediatrician and they would do this to look at your ey eyes what they were looking for was the color of the conjunctiva if it was white or pale they knew you had iron deficiency”
“so so low fertin can cause you to be fatigued to have hair loss to have insomnia”
What does a high ferritin mean?
“excess iron will increase the number of senescent cells in the body. And senescent cells are these zombie cells that accumulate as you get older, and they sit there and they cause inflammation mainly, and also can cause cancer.”
“because many bacteria and other forms of infection seem to thrive when levels of iron in the blood are high.”
About the iron-overload condition some people inherit.
“that iron can't get detoxified you build up iron in your liver your heart your pancreas and your brain and your joints and guess what you rust”
“I know there's especially a cluster of polymorphisms. One is in the hemochromatosis gene, the other one's in the transferrin gene which binds free iron together if you have, like, this right combination. I don't know how frequent it is in the human population it occurs, people actually have a five times increased risk of Alzheimer's disease.”
What raises ferritin?
“so maybe you need to eat more meat or maybe we need to think about if you're losing blood somewhere and it you know could be a sign of you know that you need a colonoscopy”
About women who still have periods and whose iron runs low.
“It's supplementing every other day with a very high bioavailable iron. And when we start looking at how we are supplementing every other day with either carbonyl or glycinate, then we're really able to boost that ferotin and people start to feel better.”
About people whose iron runs high, or who carry the genes for it.
“people who have hemochromatosis or whose iron levels are abnormally high should exercise caution when considering vitamin C supplementation due to its propensity to improve the absorption of dietary iron”
“you want to make sure you get enough uh through the supplement probably iron bis glycinate is the most bioavailable form”
What lowers ferritin?
About men who carry too much iron alongside poor metabolic health.
“pretty interesting data in men that the more metabolically deranged they are the better they do with therapeutic phlebotomy whereas the less metabolically deranged they are the less of an effect they have by giving blood reducing the oxidative stress of iron”
Who is ferritin different for?
“if you're a woman you you might be iron deficient or anemic especially if you don't eat red meat or you're vegan or you have heavy periods and you probably need iron in your in your uh menstruating ears”
“And I think the reality of it is that 20 to 30% of menstruating women are, during their menstruation are iron deficient, and they just don't even know about it.”
“because for a great number of years of a woman's life she is going to have less iron than a man due to her menstrual cycle that may actually offer a protective benefit against heart disease”
“your iron status your ferritin level is very very important because that that particularly menstruating women or people have gut issues if you have gluten issues you may not absorb iron that can also be an issue”
“she was definitely iron deficient which is not uncommon because a lot of the absorbable iron comes from meat heme iron right right right right so you know when somebody's been vegan for a while they have to be a little bit more careful”
What do doctors say about the test itself?
“if your doctors are not checking your fertin levels please ask that they do um it's not enough to just know what your iron level is you have to know what that fertin level is as well”
“the normal range for feritin can be quite large, right? You can have a ferin of 30 and your doctor will say that that's normal and it may well be normal but as you're saying if it's not 60 or above it might be one of the reasons why you're getting these symptoms.”
“there was something called fertin it's again it's not something typically checked on your regular blood panel but fertin is a really important measure of your total body iron stores”
“simple things like you know iron deficiency and B12 they're missed all the time and you know B12 and iron I'm amazed at how often they're missed and they're not treated and how much of a difference that makes in people's lives.”
“fertin is also what is known as an acute phase reactant and what that means is anytime inflammation is present in the body you will see fertin levels rise and they will rise independent of iron levels”
“when a person has an infection for example their fertin level can be high even if they are deficient in Iron”
Common questions
What is an optimal ferritin level?
45–70 ng/mL, according to Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Elizabeth Boham.
What is a normal ferritin level?
Most US labs print 15–150 ng/mL. Your report grades you against that range. It exists to catch disease, not to describe your best. Labs print different ranges by sex: about 15–150 ng/mL for women and 30–400 for men.
What does your ferritin number mean?
Under 15 ng/mL, your report marks it low. Between 15 and 150 it prints as normal. Over 150, your report marks it high. Where the people we follow draw their own line is above. Labs print different ranges by sex: about 15–150 ng/mL for women and 30–400 for men.
Is ferritin of 30 normal?
Your lab will call it normal. Dr. Mark Hyman puts the floor at 45 ng/mL, so by that number it is low.
Do they all agree?
No. Dr. Stacy Sims puts the line somewhere else: “If you were part of my high performance athletic crew, we want to see minimum 50, preferably 100. So, we have to supplement you to bring it up”
What does the ferritin test measure?
The protein your body stores iron in. So the test reads your iron reserves, not the iron in circulation. Stores run down before anaemia shows. That is why fatigue and hair loss can arrive while a blood count still looks fine. It also rises with inflammation.
Where does this number come from?
Dr. Mark Hyman, on video. The link above jumps straight to that minute.
They don't all draw the line in the same place
“If you were part of my high performance athletic crew, we want to see minimum 50, preferably 100. So, we have to supplement you to bring it up”
Where else this number comes up
- “Not the optimum level that you I might think is good like vitamin D over 45 or feritin iron store over 45” Dr. Mark Hyman · 52:18 →
- “so a fertin of 16 not an optimal fertin of 45 for example or a vitamin D of 20 not of optimal vitamin D of 50” Dr. Mark Hyman · 51:15 →
- “almost 70% of people at an extremely low level like iron you know your feritin should be 45 or 50 but 16 is the cutoff on the lab” Dr. Mark Hyman · 46:23 →