Copper deficiency

Andy/ Sharni,

I am wondering if you will have any suggestion for E. She has low ferritin (between 300 and 500) and her annual comprehensive checkup was fine EXCEPT she has low Cu and borderline normal Zn. We are giving her a multi-vit with Cu & Zn (sprount's healthy aging multivitamin) after we found out that she has low Cu but the reading did not change. so wondering if there is any other vitamin that can help.

How much copper and zinc is in what you give her now and does she also take vitamin D?

Thanks Andy for replying. The multivit E takes have 1mg Cu and 15 mg Zn. serving size is 2 tabs and it provide 50% daily  value of Cu and 100% daily value of Zn. You asked about Vit D. even though we were giving her ~ 1000iu Vit D but her Vit D level was still low and currently she is getting the 50,000 iu every 4 weeks. we have not rechecked to know if the levels improved yet.

Bostonian,

I have added a picture of the zinc/copper formula that I am giving Little A in the gallery - under - reference pictures. 

Sharmin,
so you give this one in addition to the Raw one multi-vit? Why do you give him this extra supplement?  The raw one multivit seem to have 100% daily requirement for Cu and Zn.

Bostonian,

During our most recent appointment we were told that the multi containing 100% of the required vits/mins was enough.  In the past however, they had recommended a higher does of zinc/copper so I had given him the one depicted in the gallery.  Perhaps you can try the multi and then retest - if it isn't enough you can discuss giving her an additional supplement with you doctor? 

It can be a balancing act to get the levels of zinc and copper normal. This is unusual, though, because they interact and usually, if copper is low, zinc is high. The advice I have found is keep trying until it's right. There may be some vitamin D connection, so see if the levels normalize once the D is above 30.

Thanks Sharmin, Thanks Andy for your suggestions. We ordered both and will start with the multivit first and see what happens...in the mean time, with 50,000iu of Vit D, the Vit D levels should improve too. Thanks again.

Hi Bostonian,

Both my boys copper reading was low. They take chelated copper 2mg from Holland and Barrett. They have been taking this for a while now and the levels have picked up however it never seem to reach a normal level, has been 11.0/10.8..  Dr's advice eating nuts and other foods as a natural source for copper. Vitamin D levels have been just over 50 and lower while taking copper. I haven't really looked at zinc levels.
I think Ferriprox or even other chelators effects the copper levels. When my son came of Exjade due to a serious implications,  during which time he was off chelation completely for a few weeks, his copper reading returned to normal, 17.4, and only came down when he started chelating again.

Chelation is a culprit here, as it does remove some trace minerals. The zinc level should also be checked, as zinc is extremely important to bone health and has a somewhat inverse relationship with copper. High zinc will lead to low copper, but in most cases involving thals, chelation would be to blame for low levels. One more reason the trace minerals should be supplemented in thals.

Emby,
thanks for your note.
Thank you Andy. You are right...it is the chelation that affects the trace elements. My daughter loves seafood and nuts and she eats them pretty regularly but we also realized that her multivit did not have enough Cu. so with chelation and not enough Cu in multivit, it dropped quickly. But I am so glad that the annual comprehensiv echeckup caught it quickly so that we can fix it. So, I cannot stress enough to every Thal major and intermedia patients, never skip the annual comprehensive check-up.

Bostonian, I wish I could "like" your post as we can do on Facebook. 

"Thal major and intermedia patients, never skip the annual comprehensive check-up."

That cannot be overemphasized.

That's an important reminder Bostonian!  Thank god for the annual comprehensive check ups!