Rescuing my son: Checking for Non-anemic Iron Deficiency

"What your doctor won’t tell you (referring to your child with Trisomy 21)... iron is essential for growth, development, and a healthy immune system. Iron deficiencies are proven to affect IQ and focus in children. Since iron excess can lead to enhanced damage through oxidative stress, it is important to be tested for iron. Measuring blood levels of ferritin is the best way to evaluate how much iron is stored in the body, and whether or not you are deficient." Nutichem.com


Iron excess in kids with Trisomy 21 is common, but it is not always the case. Trisomy 21 is a genetic disorder and not a disease, which means the ways the syndrome will affect the person will vary due to the combination of multiple inherited genes and the exchanged genes by the extra chromosome. So there are also many kids with Trisomy 21 with low iron levels and animina. Therefore, testing is the best way to check a child with trisomy 21 iron levels.

Borderline iron levels is known as depletion or non-anemic iron deficiency. When a person has non-anemic iron deficiency it means the person could be at risk of developing anemia, so iron supplementation may be recommended. Because many kids with Trisomy 21 have hypothyroidism, there is a higher risk for these kids to develop iron depilation leading to anemia. As well as, if the child has food allergy or sensitivity, they are at a higher risk of non-anemic iron deficiency because the gastro intestinal track it is not absorbing the adequate iron intake.

Non-anemic iron deficiency can cause problems. According to the study 'Women with low, but not anemic, iron also have impaired physical performance', done by the Cornell University in New York, has shown that "iron-depleted women had lower physical work capacity, and their performance was related to the amount of stored body iron... Other researchers have recently reported that moderate iron deficiency also compromises memory and verbal learning in teen-agers."  If non-anemic iron can cause low physical performance in an adult women, it makes me to conclude, it should affect in a similar way to a young child's body that it is still  developing, but even more to a child with Trisomy 21, who is already predisposed to have issues with physical performance and memory lost. 

Iron and Oxidative Stress
Because of the recommendation from the lab where we get Tommy's vitamin, and after talking to his nutritionist, we tested Tommy for iron levels. The results came back showing "borderline iron levels", which means, he is just a little bit underneath the normal level. Therefore, it has been recommended iron supplementation by our local Down Syndrome Clinic and Tommy's nutritionist.

Normal levels of iron are necessary for the body to get adequate level of micronutrients, but its accumulation lead to toxic levels that generates oxidative stress. So iron supplementation should be regulated to avoid high levels of iron. Oxidative stress develops at a faster speed in our kids with Trisomy 21 than in the typical population. Therefore, monitoring our son's iron levels has become part of our wellness plan to keep him healthy.

What is Oxidative Stress? According to Enzo Life Sciences' website "Oxidative stress is increasingly implicated as a possible underlying pathogenic mechanism in a wide range of diseases such as asthma, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. It results from an imbalance between the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the system's ability to detoxify the reactive intermediates or repair the resulting damage."

Oxidative stress under control

1. Detoxification methods to prevent iron and toxins accumulation. Quilation has been recommended by the physician is in charge of Tommy's nutrition. Currently, we are doing a detox treatment and epson salt bath. We also incorporated kefir beverage in Tommy's diet because kefir has anti-oxidative components to keep oxidative stress under control, which has been proven throughout scientific research. We are going to focused in detoxification for the following months because there is high concern about neurotransmitter levels in Tommy's test results, that show extremely high levels of toxicity, which means his body is not flushing the toxins properly. The natural process for the body to flush toxins in a person with Trisomy 21 is slower than in a typical person.
2. Monitoring Oxidative stress through blood work or urine test. Iron is not the only factor that increases oxidative stress in our kids with trisomy 21. Oxygen quality intake is also other way oxidative stress can raise in our kids. Many kids with Trisomy 21 are mouth breather and mouth breathing quickly releases huge quantities of carbon dioxide. Therefore, a way to check for oxidative stress is with a Basic Metabolic Panel (BMP). This test is a set of 8 test to check sugar (glucose) and calcium levels in the blood, as well as, the kidneys function and body electrolyte and fluid balance. So this test give a general information about how the body is performing, which also includes a test for carbon dioxide levels. If the carbon dioxide it is too high, their is a high risk for oxidative stress. We already did the test and Tommy's BMP came back normal. Right now there is not  a big concern about oxidative stress. Maybe in the future, we will do a test for oxidative stress as part of our wellness plan to keep Tommy healthy if it would be a concern.

Our Experience
As soon as, we began to supplement with iron we saw a big change on Tommy. His endurance has dramatically improved, he has became more physically active. His attention span has also improved. So supplementing with iron, it is helping his body and mind more than what I was expecting. 

We are supplementing iron through food and supplement. The iron supplement we are giving to Tommy has Vitamin C and Vitamin B12, because they are essential for iron absorption. We are also providing a balance diet to him with food rich in vitamin C and Vitamin B12, so he can get most the nutrients he needs from his food, but he is in stage he doesn't want to eat much at dinner time. So supplementation is recommended for him.

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