last week, Johnson revealed that he has a chronic autoimmune condition, called autoimmune gastritis. The disease causes “irreversible damage” to the lining of the stomach, he said, and often develops silently and asymptomatically over the course of years. He was diagnosed in May, he wrote, after years of persistently low ferritin, a protein that stores iron inside cells, that his team struggled to explain.
I’m curious, what interventions led to this? Or it was written in his genes?
I understand that it started 11 years ago… probably before interventions. Bryan Johnson on X: "I had low iron for 11 years. Yes, even when I ate meat, my ferritin was low and averaged 38 ng/mL. I’ve finally boosted it back to healthy levels. You can see my protocol below. On the surface, my low ferritin was easy to dismiss by most standards of care. Most doctors miss https://t.co/lgsvoiqbJk" / X
I am the opposite… my ferritin level is always above the max level by 20%. No I do not have hemachromatosis. My level was more than 3x the normal levels initially. When I started C15 supplement, and my liver recovered, it dropped to 1.2x the normal level. I consume a lot of red meat. He should probably eat some red meat.
It’s most likely not even connected to red meat. As an example, I don’t eat red meat or any meat for decades and my iron levels are always normal. He has many specialists working for him and they don’t know the reasons. I’m glad we cannot blame rapamycin for that. He wasn’t on it 11 years ago. At least one thing can be excluded.
He says his ferritin was “always low and averaged 38 ng/mL” and he “finally boosted it to healthy levels”.
Well, that’s a matter of opinion. Average of 38 ng/mL is not particularly low, and well above the cutoff low range of 30 ng/mL by LabCorp. Low would be mine, at 20 ng/mL and it was flagged as “Low” by LabCorp. Even that is a matter of opinion, as some MDs (e.g. Dr. Greger is one), “low” doesn’t start until it’s below 15 ng/mL - so by that standard my 20 is not low either. FWIW, I don’t experience any negative side effects from my “20” that I can tell, nor is it reflected in any other serum biomarkers as a negative (hemoglobin etc.). And a ferritin of 38 is not a diagnostic level of any disease that I am aware of.
That said, it’s possible that my “20” is suboptimal. I have therefore elected to raise it to at least 30 ng/mL (with lactoferrin supplementation to start with). However, I don’t feel any need to go much higher than 30 - most literature I’ve seen does not clearly make a convincing case for any level beyond that. My reasoning is simple - raising my level to 30 is unlikely to be risky, while possibly providing a small additional cushion of safety.
possibly, as an example, I can take 50,000 IU of Vitamin D3 and it will not raise my D3 level by much. But if I opt for the active form of D3, just 20mcg will raise my D3 level through the roof. Basically my kidneys can convert the regular D3 to the active form properly.
Yes, I agree and it doesn’t look like low to me too. My son’s ferritin is 9 - it’s very low - and so far nobody could come up with a reason for that even after many different tests.
There is an argument that dopamine metabolism in the brain would like ferritin at 50-70.
This confuses me.
There is cholecalciferol ie D3. Then cacifediol 25OHD the storage form and calcitriol 1,25 dihydroxy VD which is actually the active form.
Normal total serum quantities of calcitriol would be under 1mcg.