Dr Natalie Crawford

So you're not able to utilize the iron that's coming in and store it because this inflammatory state is kind of inhibiting that.

So in a menstruating patient, I'm always thinking, is she bleeding too much the first time?

And is that bleeding menstrual?

Is it coming from her rectum?

Is it coming from her gastrointestinal tract?

Does she have gastritis?

Or we have to go through the algorithm of why that might happen.

In a postmenopausal patient, we can remove vaginal bleeding from the issue, uterine bleeding, a period.

But then now I'm looking at nutrition.

I'm looking at exercise.

I'm looking at inflammation as causative factors.

So it depends on who you read.

Yeah.

Again, you know, when you're looking at male normative curves versus what, you know, we tend to accept lower levels for a female.

But now that we're looking at performance and, you know, looking at other factors besides just what is this ferritin level.

Mm-hmm.

There's a lot of great new research coming out that we are looking at this differently and that in our clinic, we are looking for 60 to 100 for a ferritin level to be considered optimal.

Very different than the baseline for keeping you out of a hospital versus you functioning at your absolute best.

So when we say normal, I think this is important for everybody watching or listening.

Normal in medicine means common, not non-pathological, not bad.