Ferritin Face: the risks and rewards for haemochromatosis awareness
Facial appearance is not a reliable indicator of your body's iron levels Ferritin Face is currently a hot online phenomenon, as you can see from the major media articles cited below. Basically, it's the idea that facial appearance can be improved my ensuring your body is not lacking in iron (defined as low ferritin). Some people believe that low ferritin can be diagnosed from looking at your face, and if you have it you should start taking iron supplements to raise your ferritin level (and by implication look better). Unfortunately, it's not true that facial appearance can reliably indicate low ferritin, but a simple blood test can. A low number may mean you need to ingest more iron. A high number may mean you need to lose iron (which happens whenever your body loses blood). So, it is unwise to start taking iron supplements unless you know your actual ferritin level, as measured by a simple blood test, rather than guessing from your face (especially since dangerously high ...