Ferritin 18 ng/mL — what does it mean?
Iron stores
- What most labs call normal
- 12–300 ng/mL
- Where you actually want to sit
- 50–150 ng/mL
What this test is
Your body’s iron savings account — how much iron you have held in reserve.
What your number means
50–150 is the window. Under 20 your tank is nearly empty even if the rest of your blood count still looks fine. Over 200 means one of two things — too much iron, or inflammation pushing the number up, because this reading climbs whenever the body is inflamed. So read a high result next to your hs-CRP before assuming it’s iron.
Why it matters
Iron powers the tiny engines (mitochondria) inside your busiest cells, so this is a direct fuel gauge.
Ferritin is the fuel tank for your cellular engines. An empty tank starves your cells of energy; an overflowing one is toxic and often a sign the body is inflamed — so both ends of the scale are a problem.
What to do about it
If it’s low, look at diet and ask your doctor about an iron supplement, then retest in three months. If it’s high, don’t self-treat — get it checked properly alongside your inflammation markers.
Where it sits in your Body Age
Ferritin is one of the tests behind Metabolic Fuel — Whether you have the vitamins and minerals your body needs on hand to repair itself. It is one of four areas that together give a single number: the age your body reads, next to the age on your birth certificate.
This page explains what a blood test measures. It is not a medical diagnosis and cannot tell you what your own result means for you — take that to a doctor.