First question for anemia: what is your body doing with the iron you already have?

This anemia series doesn’t start with nutrition, it starts with 5 habits that can help you stop wasting the iron you already have

Did you know your body recycles iron best under the cover of darkness?

Iron recycling: possibly the most overlooked strategy in treating anemia?

Welcome to my Quantum Iron/Quantum Anemias Theories series!

Catch up on the earlier posts here if you are just getting started.

In this series, we are looking at all aspects of the lifecycle of blood, because it is only in understanding the complete process we can identify and address the different types of anemias from their root causes.

Most readers have probably tried and had limited success with supplements— it was after hearing from so many people that the supplements didn’t work for them for various reasons (adverse effects, aversion, didn’t improve their condition, etc) that I started researching the topic of anemia in the first place.

We’ll dive into the latest research into the nutritional aspects of anemia later in the series.

Wait, this anemia series doesn’t start with nutrition?

I am not starting with nutrition for one simple reason: dietary iron is NOT the body’s primary source of iron for making new blood cells.

The digestive system can only absorb a limited amount of iron each day—an amount nearly exactly equivalent to the expected daily loss¹.

So if dietary iron turns out to only balance the amount we expect to lose each day anyways, how do we go on?

Where does iron for new blood cells actually come from?

The body’s primary source of iron is the iron it already has as part of its recycling of old and damaged red blood cells². This internally recycled iron should make up at least 80%-90% of the iron needed for the body to create all the blood cells it needs each day.

As per Slusarczyk & Mleczko-Sanecka in 2021:

The production of around 2.5 million red blood cells (RBCs) per second in erythropoiesis is one of the most intense activities in the body. It continuously consumes large amounts of iron, approximately 80% of which is recycled from aged erythrocytes. Therefore, similar to the "making", the "breaking" of red blood cells is also very rapid and represents one of the key processes in mammalian physiology…. Recent findings also identify… reciprocal cross-talk between the intensity of erythrophagocytosis and other cellular activities.

The section I highlighted at the bottom, “reciprocal cross-talk between the intensity of erythrophagocytosis and other cellular activities”, is key to me because cross-talk is one of my trigger words for the need to dive in through a quantum lens.

Crosstalk basically means communication for which modern science has no ability to predict or make useful.

To parse crosstalk demands interdisciplinary knowledge—and possibly requires a quantum biologic perspective, too³.

What we now know about iron recycling

We’re only scratching the surface here, but I still thought it might be helpful to do a little paraphrasing of what I’ve shared so far:

• Most advice surrounding anemia focuses on increasing intake of iron, either through diet or supplements, in spite of the known fact that the intestines can only uptake an amount of iron roughly equivalent to the amount of iron expected to be lost (and not recovered) through ordinary bodily function.

• Meanwhile, the vast majority of iron used to create new blood cells should originate from a highly efficient recycling process of old blood cells whose components, including iron, are used to make new cells.

But how can you create more blood if you are already deficient?

Recycling of the blood cells happens through a process called circadian autophagy (self-eating), mainly in the liver and spleen.

We will be learning so much more about the liver and spleen in this series.

But since we need a little more preliminary knowledge to target those special organs, I thought I would wrap today’s post instead with a quick discussion of autophagy (self-eating) because it is immediately actionable ways that are very safe.

True dark for autophagy

Autophagy is a daily process of self-eating that is not only responsible for iron recycling, but for many immunological and repair process across the body—particularly mitochondria.

As you will learn later in this series, mitochondrial health depends deeply on this circadian mitophagy (mitochondria-eating), and that mitochondrial health is a key factor in whether the body is able to recycle iron well or not⁴.

Good circadian health = healthy iron recycling

My key take-home message is you can’t have healthy autophagy (or iron status) if your circadian rhythm and meal timing are not in harmony⁵.

For more on how to start balancing circadian health, head to the post below for the first 5 steps I recommend:

These circadian habits will be foundational improving iron recycling abilities, stopping the waste of the iron already present in the body, and rebuilding the blood more efficiently in the future.

1. Camaschella, C., Nai, A., & Silvestri, L. (2020). Iron metabolism and iron disorders revisited in the hepcidin era. Haematologica, 105(2), 260–272. https://doi.org/10.3324/haematol.2019.232124

2. Slusarczyk, P., & Mleczko-Sanecka, K. (2021). The Multiple Facets of Iron Recycling. Genes, 12(9), 1364. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12091364

3. Calvillo, L., Redaelli, V., Ludwig, N., Qaswal, A. B., Ghidoni, A., Faini, A., Rosa, D., Lombardi, C., Pengo, M., Bossolasco, P., Silani, V., & Parati, G. (2022). Quantum Biology Research Meets Pathophysiology and Therapeutic Mechanisms: A Biomedical Perspective. Quantum Reports, 4(2), 148–172. https://doi.org/10.3390/quantum4020011

4. Slusarczyk, P., Mandal, P. K., Zurawska, G., Niklewicz, M., Chouhan, K., Mahadeva, R., Jończy, A., Macias, M., Szybinska, A., Cybulska-Lubak, M., Krawczyk, O., Herman, S., Mikula, M., Serwa, R., Lenartowicz, M., Pokrzywa, W., & Mleczko-Sanecka, K. (2023). Impaired iron recycling from erythrocytes is an early hallmark of aging. eLife, 12, e79196. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.79196

5. Ma, D., Li, S., Molusky, M. M., & Lin, J. D. (2012). Circadian autophagy rhythm: a link between clock and metabolism?. Trends in endocrinology and metabolism: TEM, 23(7), 319–325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tem.2012.03.004