16. IMPORTANT NEW BIOMARKER FOR CANCER & INFECTIONS

The ferritin to iron ratio is an under-appreciated but important biomarker for inflammatory diseases of aging. Every biomarker must be viewed as how it represents your health on a continuum. The ferritin to iron ratio is no exception.
High ferritin and low iron is classified as anemia of chronic disease (or inflammation or infection). Your brain and body is brilliant. It knows that iron is critical for cell replication and is particularly important in rapidly dividing / growing cells like viruses, bacteria, and cancer. Thus, your body tosses as much iron as it can into storage - as ferritin - when your body is under attack by infection or cancer (in some ways, cancer is the same as infection).
Knowing where you are on the anemia of chronic disease continuum is IMPORTANT. More importantly, it is very possible to modify your values - once you know them - and become optimal.
I believe that people with an optimal ferritin to iron ratio are less susceptible to: Most chronic diseases, cancer, acute infections, and chronic infectious diseases.