Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to The Bean Talk with me, Rhiannon, your fertility fairy godmother, joined by my trusted partner in life and in the mission of Mungbean Health, Jeremy. Here at Mungbean Health, we're on a mission to unlock the secrets of fertility and natural wellbeing episode at time.
Speaker: Hello and welcome back to another episode of The Bean Talk with Rhiannon and Jeremy. Hi guys and welcome back. It's so nice to have you. It is. We've had a big week. Big, big week. Big release of the fish oil. Yes, this week's been our launch. You guys would have already seen that, hopefully, and if you haven't, well... Go and check it out. Yes, Spratling. Go on to our Spratling supplements. Nourish Omega.
Speaker: Nourish Omega, she's here and she's perfect. Yeah, even better than we expected. Like we expected a lot and she has just she's delivered. She's delivered the best quality. Like everyone's loving it. It's not making anyone have that gross aftertaste. We know it's the best quality. It's practitioner, great quality of fish oil, which I wouldn't accept anything less.
Speaker: small white fish, your anchovies and sardines. And who wants to be eating a can of sardines every day or anchovies for that matter? Absolutely disgusting. Love but not every day. Hate anchovies. I love anchovies on pizza. I can do sardines, good quality ones, but there's they're anchovies. I just don't get it. They're very fishy. When they mush it up in the sauce for like Caesar, that's okay, but I hate the whole fish. Yeah. Too salty. Yeah.
Speaker: You like salty though. yeah Yeah, I do. Yeah, I like sweet because I'm a sweet girl. I've got a sweet tooth. But yeah, that's that's exciting. that's what That has just been all consuming and like that has just been the most exciting thing. So we've also, we've already told you guys, we've been back at the gym working out.
Speaker: yeah Good little fairies, which has been good, but I did actually hurt my neck a little bit. I slept funny and then also at the gym. I think it's a bit of a combination, but saw our massage therapist, Laura, from Return to Self, who is the absolute So good.
Speaker: She's so good. She worked out this neck and the rest of my body and just made me feel so much better. So look, I can turn. If you're not watching, I can go all angles. 360. I was having to do the neck to like, yeah, it wasn't good. It was not good. And like, if you've had, you know, back injury, neck injury, like and not even as bad as some people have it, just like the way you can't turn it and it hurts all the time. And when you lay down, it hurts. Even just that, like it ruins your day. i don't know how people live with chronic pain. That's the big bean, little bean, for sure. And back to the gym. Yeah. And staying consistent with the gym. Yeah. yeah Which we'll do another scan. and I was thinking I'll give us another month. Yep.
Speaker: do another scan on our bodies and just see what changes we've made. I feel like it helps keep you motivated. and it's also good to see just like, okay, the scales, obviously they just tell you the number, but I want to see am I losing a bit of fat and gaining a bit of muscle? That machine is of an Evolve.
Speaker: Evolve or Evolt. Yeah, it does a full body scan. It's like a Dex-y, Dexa, Dexa scan? Your bone density, your fat content, your water. Your each of your arms to legs. Each side, like what the muscle is.
Speaker: ratio is so good yeah it's awesome awesome machine so yeah so that'll be good and we'll be doing that again so we'll report back when we get to that but i'm thinking november give us this month yeah if it's like a month and a half two-ish months yeah that's perfect yeah you're better off to do like it's like diet 80 20 right yeah 100 you gotta enjoy you gotta enjoy life it's so short and there's so much dare i say shit that goes on in your life, you've have some enjoyment in there. You've got to find the small things that give you joy. Absolutely. And for me, sometimes that's a GYG Sunday. ah
Speaker: Or a soft serve. Yeah, actual. If you guys have had, I love soft serve. I have since I was a child. The van, like the ice cream van with the choc nuts. Oh my God. Sign me up. You don't see him much. So that's a good thing for me in my waistline. But um I did have a GYG Sunday, which I haven't actually had before. yeah And I had a GYG Sunday, the churro one with the chocolate. Oh my God. Yeah. feel like GYG's ice cream is so good. The soft serve is better. The soft serve. It's so good. Anyway. If you're trying to watch your way, don't go. But if you're looking for treat. But you're a little treat and some joy, like after we had it, Jeremy and I had our night. Oh, that's another thing that was so good. We had a night to ourselves. We had kid. We had a kid. But one kid is like no kids to us. And the other kids stayed at Jeremy's mum's place, their grandma's. It was nice. Yeah, was so nice. We went out, had dinner uninterrupted, just like at the pub. It was just like a little easy, quick, just got some fish tacos. They make these delicious fish tacos down there with this pineapple salsa. And then got a GYG drive-thru. home and watched a movie, not child-friendly.
Speaker: It was so good. We didn't have to worry about any of that. No bloody cartoons. So good. Anyway, I guess we should get stuck into it today. should. Today, we're going to talk about iron which I think is such an important topic because so many people, women especially, are iron depleted. So let's break down iron testing and let's talk more about that because you might see the names and the numbers on there and think what the actual...
Speaker: yeah So let's talk about today, I guess, something that can completely change the way that you'll understand your iron results because you might just think of one number or two and and go from there. But iron deficiency and iron testing, let's talk about that. So this is something we see incredibly common in clinic, like most clients. so I'm going to say like 90% of our clients. And many people come to us saying, my iron is always low.
Speaker: Or I've been taking iron for years. Or my doctor keeps telling me my blood tests are fine, but I'm feeling really tired. Or my ferritin goes up for a little while and then it drops again.
Speaker: Or another one is iron infusions when women will get them, which that's a whole nother topic because they've actually just bought out One of them that's commonly used in Australia is like on the ban list now. Oh, wow. And they give it to pregnant women all the time. Oh, my goodness. Of course they do. So, yeah, well, we can talk about that later or at another time. But even with the iron infusions, a lot of the time they'll get it, get it, go high, really high, and then they'll just we'll just watch it in their blood test, drop, drop, drop, drop.
Speaker: And it's like we're not fixing the root cause here. Like a lot of people come to us and be like, here's my iron results from the last year. It just keeps going down. I had an iron infusion here and you can just see the results go down. So then it's all about supporting them and yeah, obviously getting on top of that. But I guess here's where things get interesting because iron isn't simply a case of your iron is low. So take more iron. There are actually several different markers that we can look at to understand your iron status. And each one is telling us something different. So we have like in an iron studies test, we have our serum iron, ferritin.
Speaker: transferrin and also transferrin saturation. And then we need to, I guess, ask the bigger question, which is why isn't your body maintaining its stores? Why do you think? Well, there'd be lots of reasons why. Yes. Because if you're constantly supplementing iron, but your levels keep falling, we don't just want to be replacing the iron. Yeah. We don't want to just keep going supplementing you forever. We want to find out why this is happening. And we want to understand why you're losing it.
Speaker: Yeah. Why you're not absorbing it yeah or why your body isn't able to use and mobilize it properly. Exactly. so let's dive into that iron is not just one number one of the biggest mistakes we see is looking at blood testing and focusing on just one iron marker for example someone might say like my iron's normal mine's normal it's all good but that doesn't necessarily mean your iron stores are optimal or someone might say my ferritin's low but my iron's normal so i'm not iron deficient
Speaker: Again, it isn't quite that simple when we're talking about iron. Iron studies are a little bit like looking at different parts of the same bank account. One marker tells us how much is circulating. Another tells us how much you've got stored or saved. Another tells us how much transport capacity you have, how much you can move it around. And another tells how how much of that transport system is actually carrying iron.
Speaker: So it's very interesting how it can tell us so much just from your iron studies. And I guess understanding those differences can completely change how we interpret the results. So let's talk about serum iron. Yeah, let's talk about the serum iron first up. Serum iron is essentially the amount of iron circulating in your blood at the time your blood was taken. Yes. It's the iron that's available in the bloodstream to be transported and used. But here's the important thing. Yeah. Serum iron can fluctuate. It can fluctuate big time.
Speaker: and can be influenced by a number of different things like recent dietary intake of iron, supplementation, obviously, and normal biological variations as well. So serum iron on its own isn't particularly reliable. It's not a great way of determining your overall iron quality.
Speaker: stores. You can have a normal serum iron result while your iron stores are already running really low. And that's why we don't just want to look at serum iron in isolation. So you'll always see from us that we're going to recommend having a full iron study, not just ferritin tested or iron. So ferritin is probably the mark most people have heard of? Yeah, the most common marker. People usually know they'll go, yep, ferritin. And that's at the very least we want to have tested.
Speaker: Yep. And ferritin is essentially a marker of stored iron. Yes. So like your savings. Yep. Like the savings in that account sort of. Which is you want to have a good store. Yeah. You want to have a bit there just for a rainy day. Rainy day, exactly. And that rainy day could be a really heavy bleed. Yep. Or something going on. You're not getting enough in dietary wise.
Speaker: Yep. Your serum iron is... what's circulating and available right now. Yes. Ferritin gives us more information about what's being stored away. Yes. This is why ferritin can be particularly useful when trying to identify iron deficiency before someone develops full-blown iron deficiency amenia yeah a nemia anemia. Yes. Yes.
Speaker: You can have a normal hemoglobin and a normal serum ion, but have a very low ferritin. So in other words, your blood count can look okay while your iron reserves are running low. However, here's why you should always have a practitioner assess your iron results, especially before taking some random iron supplement you found and online or at the chemist. Ferritin can also increase in response to inflammation or infection. So inflammation can make ferritin look better than it actually is. I've seen this on my results before and I've seen it on so many patients. They're like, oh my God, yes, your eye, oh, the eye's looking, oh, ferritin's looking great. Oh my God, so good. And then it's like, no, no, let's look at the other markers now. Yeah. your CRP, your inflammatory marker is like really high as well. So let's retest in a month or couple of weeks or whatever we can bring down that inflammation and see what your iron is actually doing. Yeah. This is why we always want to interpret ferritin alongside the broader clinical picture and where appropriate markers of inflammation.
Speaker: That's right. Yes. So checking in on those other markers. So when we're looking at ferritin, we're not just asking, is it inside the laboratory reference range, like the doctor's reference range? We're asking, what does this mean in the context of this person's symptoms, blood count, inflammation, and other iron markers? So next we have transferrin.
Speaker: so transferrin is the main protein responsible for transporting iron around the bloodstream yes think of transferrin like a fleet of delivery trucks yes the trucks are there to transport iron to wherever it's needed yep when your body is low in iron transferrin can increase because your body is essentially trying to increase its capacity to capture and transport the iron that's available in your bloodstream i guess so transferrin gives us information about the body's iron transport capacity And this is different from serum iron. Serum iron tells us the iron currently circulating. Transferrin tells us about the system that's transporting it. And then there's transferrin saturation, which this one sounds super complex, but it's actually really simple.
Speaker: Transferrin saturation tells us approximately how much of your transferrin is actually loaded with iron. So if transferrin is the fleet of delivery trucks, transferrin saturation tells us how many of those trucks actually have cargo in them. So how many are filled with iron.
Speaker: You could have plenty of transport capacity, but if there isn't much iron available, your transferrin saturation can be low. yeah So very simply. Serum iron equals what's circulating right now. Yes.
Speaker: Ferritin equals your stored iron. Yes. Transferrin equals your iron transport protein. Yep. And transferrin saturation equals how much of the transport capacity is actually carrying iron. Exactly. Yes. So when you put it like that, it makes it a lot easier to understand, right? Yeah. And this is why looking at the entire iron panel is so much more informative than looking at just one. We also want to know how heavy are your periods, obviously, because you're bleeding every month, right? Or you should be. What does your diet look like? Are you supplementing with iron? How are you taking your iron? Are you drinking coffee or tea around your iron? Are you experiencing bloating, diarrhea, constipation, reflux or abdominal pain? What iron are you taking?
Speaker: Could there be an underlying condition affecting absorption? This is where clinical history becomes just as important as the blood test. And I always think back in clinic also, I'm going to apologize if you can hear any screaming in the background. It's school holidays here and we are lucky enough to have a trampoline, but it is not far from my office and you may hear the kids having a ball out there, which is great, but you'll just have to yeah, enjoy that. We're so used to it, all the screaming in the background, but not everyone is. Yeah. And what I always think back to about in clinic as well is like before there were blood tests and confirmation by that scientific road, we had to do everything traditionally, which is case taking. And as a good practitioner, you have to be able to take a case good and understand what that means. That's the difference between a great practitioner and a not so great one. And then the the blood test just confirmed. Like I had a client yesterday, it was hormonal. So I'm obviously all over that. She was needing support with her progesterone levels and her estrogen. I already had her on a herb.
Speaker: that was supporting those hormones that I needed her to support because her her cycle and her history of her cycle and her recent events had told me about that, what she needed. And then I just confirmed with the testing to make sure, because even in my expertise and clinical expertise in how long I've been doing it for, sometimes things will come back and you'll be like, oh, okay, yes, I see that angle now. Or, oh, I didn't realize it was like that far that way because everyone presents differently. So it's nice to be able to confirm with both. So let's talk about what if your ferritin keeps going up and then down?
Speaker: This is something we see all the time. Someone starts taking iron, their ferritin improves, they feel better. They stop the supplement. yeah A few months later, the ferritin drops again. So they start another round of iron and the cycle repeats. Yeah. over and over again. Now, sometimes this isn't simply because the underlying cause hasn't been addressed or maybe the original iron deficiency was never fully investigated. The solution isn't always to find a stronger iron supplement.
Speaker: The solution is to understand the reason the iron keeps failing. So some common mistakes that we see in clinic and some of the biggest mistakes we see with ongoing iron or low iron include things like looking at only the serum iron assuming normal hemoglobin means iron status is fine looking at ferritin without considering inflammation and other inflammatory markers taking iron indefinitely without investigating why it's low what else taking iron with coffee or tea yes not considering dietary iron intake yeah forgetting about vitamin c and milk consumption vitamin c helps absorb yes so with your meals you can really pick up the meal composition and and then get some vitamin c in there with your iron um ignoring digestive symptoms Yes, if you're having like a lot of digestive stuff, it could be that you've got some issue. I've had a client that had H. pylori and once we uncovered that, then we've gotten onto the variety. Her iron's never been as high as it is. And she's not even having to worry about maintaining because it's just maintaining with her diet.
Speaker: Assuming more iron is always better. looking at iron without considering B12, folate and other nutritional factors. Yes. Treating the blood test instead of the person. yeah And perhaps the biggest one, assuming that because you've been prescribed iron, the problem has been solved. Yeah, especially when you go to the doctor, you get your blood test, they see it's low, which is really low yeah when they tell you it's low. And they'll tell you, go to the chemist, take this iron. They don't tell you how long for, they don't tell you to retest, they don't tell you any of that.
Speaker: and then used on it forever and doesn't lift and you're just having all this inflammatory iron and and it's not even absorbing, it's no good. Iron and supplementation can absolutely be necessary, but supplementation is often only one part of the solution. look So what can you do differently in this situation? If your iron is consistently low, start by looking at the basics. Make sure you're regularly eating iron-rich food.
Speaker: Consider the timing of coffee and tea around iron-rich meals and your iron supplements. look at your digestive health. And if you're taking iron, but your levels aren't improving, don't simply increase the dose and just keep doing it.
Speaker: Book in a consultation with us so we can properly investigate things for you. So many clients come to us when those iron fatigue feelings and heart palpitation, hair falling out, pale skin, all those things. And then your thyroid starts to suffer because your thyroid needs enough iron to work effectively. So our final takeaways. If your iron is always low, the answer isn't necessarily you need more iron. The better question is, why isn't your body maintaining its iron?
Speaker: Because when iron keeps dropping, we don't want to spend years simply filling the bucket. We want to find out why the bucket keeps emptying in the first place. And the difference between simply treating low iron and actually understanding why your iron is low in the first place is the key.
Speaker: Yeah, I good. So if you've got low iron or you're feeling any of those symptoms, like hair falling out, pale skin, low and tired all the time, heart palpitations, your iron could be low and it could be that you've gone to the doctor. They've done all the testing in air quotations and they said everything's fine, air quotations. But you're not feeling fine. Yeah, it's time to investigate. So reach out.
Speaker: at www.mungbeanhealth.com or on Instagram. At mungbean underscore health, which is M-U-N-G-B-E-A-N underscore health. DMs are always open. Also on TikTok, if you're trying to conceive, go check out my videos on there. I share videos daily. I spend so much time giving you guys free advice on there. So go, go, go. It's mungbean underscore health. And don't fall for my stupid people that are bloody copying all my stuff and taking my videos. That's a whole nother story. And then go to Sproutling.com.
Speaker: supplements yeah www.sproutlingsupplements.com.au yes check out our new fish oil yes our fish oil so good obviously great anti-inflammatory so if you've got low iron you need to bring down that inflammation you'll be doing some fish oil do people know about bad poor iron and inflammation i don't know if that was mentioned in there we did mention about it but do they know specifically that iron causes too much iron causes inflammation If you're taking a crappy iron, yeah i don't want to say any names, but some of the chemist ones that you would have been prescribed from a doctor, they are a crappy form of iron and they give you a very high dose of the iron thinking, oh, well, yeah it's crap. Yes. who's die Let's put heaps in there. You'll get constipated. You'll feel sick and nauseous. You'll feel like crap. And your body will start making inflammation to try and...
Speaker: do what it needs to do it will yeah creates because iron in itself is inflammatory yeah so then you're using heaps of it similar to like iron infusion right lots of inflammation and that's not good inflammation is the number one cause of disease so think about these poor people that are constipated they're still tired it's not fixing their iron they're inflamed and all they're trying to do is feel a bit better get a bit more energy making things worse So yes, so naturopathic ions are always going to be key. We have some amazing ions practitioner grade that are so good. We have a couple to choose from as well. So we'll find what works best for you. We have a dose of around that 24 milligram of iron, which is ideal and in the best forms because your body can only absorb about that much a day anyway. So you don't want to be taking any more than that because you're not going to use it. We also have tricks up our sleeve of how we dose that and how we sort of pulse that for you so that then you don't get it blocked and don't absorb it. We've got all the tricks. We've been working with iron for years and years. So please reach out.
Speaker: We'd love to help you. And yeah, and and our Instagram for Sproutling, if you want to go check out more about that is Sproutling underscore supplements. Thanks for tuning in. Thank you guys. Bye.
Speaker: And that's a wrap on today's dose of wellness. I'm Rhiannon, your fertility fairy godmother. Thank you for joining us. Stay connected with us on Instagram at mungbin underscore health.
