Unbound Iron Detox Protocol

As I've been reviewing since 2020, unbound iron is one of the primary factors that contribute to much of the disease we see today, aside from mitochondrial dysfunction, insulin resistance, circadian dysregulation, nutritional deficiencies, and environmental toxicity.

Beginning in the 1940s, the United States government began fortifying flour, corn, rice, and related food products with the form of unbound iron shavings to support widespread iron deficiency. Of course, this backfired immensely as we are seeing today with ever-increasing rates of disease and obesity. Other factors of unbound iron include supplementation/injections, hard water, non-heme iron in plant foods, and excessive heme iron intake from animal foods (red meats). Now, it is important to note that common bloodwork typically only tests for SERUM FERRITIN, which is now being indicated as an indication of INFLAMMATION and TOXICITY. This unbound iron is stored first in the gut, then the liver, then the tissues of the body, and eventually the BRAIN, contributing to neurodegenerative disease. This unbound iron is called HEMOSIDERIN, and it can only be tested for with liver biopsy (extremely painful) and/or scanning equipment called Ferriscan (extremely expensive).

The range of side effects includes digestive issues, food sensitivities, gut microbiome dysbiosis, parasite infection, and gut inflammation/permeability with gut accumulation, fatty liver, poor liver/detox function, etc. for liver accumulation, general inflammation and autoimmunity in tissue accumulation, and psychiatric illness and neurodegeneration with brain accumulation.  You can search Pubmed or Google Scholar for essentially any disease today and include unbound iron in your search query and you will find it contributes to many, if not all of them.

The blood markers that SHOULD be tested for, to get the complete picture of full iron status, include the following...

• Ceruloplasmin
• Serum Copper
• Serum Ferritin
• Hemoglobin
• Iron & TIBC
• Magnesium RBC
• Transferrin
• Vitamin A (Retinol)
• Vitamin D
• Zinc

Now with that said, unlike much of the research states today, there is no IRON METABOLISM. There is only COPPER-IRON METABOLISM, research began dismissing the copper factor around the same time that unbound iron fortification was implemented in the 1940s. The necessary nutrient cofactors to both clear the unbound iron/copper and put it to use include BIOAVAILABLE copper (bound to ceruloplasmin, which the copper in beef/cod liver includes), magnesium, zinc (preferably from food sources, though the supplement is fine if the copper is accounted for, can be necessary for copper detox if toxicity is present), retinol (preformed vitamin A from animal foods), vitamin D (from seafood/cod liver and/or sunlight preferably), whole food vitamin C, vitamin B1 (thiamine), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B3 (niacin), vitamin B9 (folate), and vitamin B12 (adenosyl- and methylcobalamin, also only found in animal foods). To cover these factors, the lifestyle should be rich in regular sunlight exposure, and the diet should be rich in beef/cod liver for copper/retinol/all B vitamins (cod liver is the highest food source of vitamin D in its active form), oysters for zinc/copper, goat/sheep dairy/kefir covers many of the B vitamins and vitamin A/copper/zinc, though raw/organic grass-fed cow dairy/kefir suffices if that's all that's available in your area, seafood/heart organs/supplementation for magnesium, and leafy green vegetables properly prepared for folate. Cycling red meat intake rather than daily intake has been most effective in my experience with hereditary hemochromatosis. I will have red meats 3-5 times a week, while my diet is primarily made up of eggs and seafood otherwise.

Less than around 40% of this non-iron/unbound iron consumed is actually used by the body, while the rest is stored in organs, starting with liver and gut, eventually tissue and brain.  Now, this iron is non-heme/unbound/oxidized. Iron must be bound to heme, hemoglobin, or other enzymes, such as Ceruloplasmin, Ferroxidase, and Transferrin.

None of these processes can occur without energy or ATP, which requires Magnesium and Phosphorus to form Mg-ATP.  You cannot load Iron into Ferritin without Ferroxidase, which is a Copper-dependent enzyme.

If this does not occur, Iron gets stored in tissue as Hemosiderin, which is proposed to be insoluble and unable to be removed from the organs and body (though I believe there is a solution to nearly everything within human biology).

You cannot load Iron into Hemoglobin without Catalase activity to neutralize the Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) that oxidizes copper and makes it toxic and unusable. Retinol, or preformed vitamin A (found only in animal foods), is essential for Catalase production and thus Hemoglobin, along with that usable Copper. Retinol is also necessary to make Copper usable to load into Ceruloplasmin, and THUS FERROXIDASE.

Factors to avoid:

• Iron supplements/injections
• Copper supplementation and from the water supply (copper pipes)
• Ascorbic/citric acid supplementation (fruits/juices are fine as they are in trace amounts in comparison and the vitamin C includes the entire Vitamin C complex, this includes citrate bound supplements)
• Low zinc and related nutrient cofactor intake (low meat/animal fat intake, vegan/vegetarian diets)
• Industrialized vegetable/seed oils (opt for olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, butter, tallow, ghee, and lard instead)
• Refined sucrose
• Fluoride
• High Blue Light exposure (review the Sun related protocols and nnEMF Protection protocol for more info)
• High Artificial Light at Night exposure
• Low direct sunlight exposure
• Birth control/IUDs
• Caffeine and any stimulant drugs (depletes magnesium and zinc)
• Recreational drug consumption (depletes many of the nutrient cofactors and induces inflammation/oxidative stress)
• Various medications can contribute
• High stress without active management
• Glyphosate (buy NON-GMO organic if you can afford to, but wash all produce with a solution of clean/distilled water with 1 tbsp of baking soda, apple cider vinegar, and sea salt each dissolved in it to clear pesticides)
• Hard water (analyze your city's water composition and get a shower filter if possible)

Factors to include for detox:

• Blood donation quarterly after the age of 40 for men and women with menopause, twice a year for men after the age of 25 (this is the KEY factor here)
• Inositol hexaphosphate/IP6
• Curcumin in turmeric
• Quercetin
• Milk thistle (seeds or extract)

We have an endogenous enzyme present in the body to clear unbound copper/iron and various heavy metals called Metallothionein. This requires proper glutathione function, which requires enough ATP from calorie intake and sunlight exposure to function. The cofactors that go into the glutathione cycle include:

• Cysteine
• Glutamic acid
• Glycine
• Magnesium
• Phosphorus
• Zinc
• Copper
• Selenium
• Thiamine
• Riboflavin
• Niacin
• Pyroxidine

So aside from avoiding the detrimental factors, accounting for nutrient cofactors in whole food nutrient-dense based diet, and blood donation, the ultimate cleanse detox stack for me personally has included magnesium chloride/glycinate, zinc glycinate, beef liver (if beef/cod liver hasn't been consumed in the diet that week), IP6 for phosphorus and iron detox directly, milk thistle seeds (usually around 6-9 seeds chewed well and swallowed), and glycine, and NAC for cysteine. It is important to note that soluble fiber or another binding agent (activated charcoal, food-grade diatomaceous earth, bentonite clay) is necessary to bind the unbound copper/iron from total elimination from the body, otherwise, it can be recycled via the biliary route in the liver (cause of carnivore diet diarrhea). I prefer berries or my fermented ground flaxseed (soaked in goat kefir), or even jasmine white rice.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Serum ferritin is an important inflammatory disease marker, as it is mainly a leakage product from damaged cells https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2014/mt/c3mt00347g

Limitations of Serum Ferritin in Diagnosing Iron Deficiency in Inflammatory Conditions https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijcd/2018/9394060/

More on copper-iron metabolism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZFAj5GkDPo&ab_channel=CKSpeaks