Excuse me for resurrecting this old thread. I went through this same thing a couple of years ago - it really stressed me out. My ferritin was over 600 and my iron saturation was around 90%.

My GP was a jerk and for six months tried to convince me I had fatty liver. He simply would not consider any other conclusion - but my CRP was normal and I am very fit so fatty liver did not make sense to me. Especially with the CRP being normal.

So I told that GP to jump in the lake and the blood services here (new zealand) treated me for suspected haemochromatosis. I was negative on the gene test but 20% test falsely as negative on the gene testing and also they only test for three out of over 40 different suspected genetic profiles being researched for iron overload.

Worse than this is a total prejudice about nutritional causes of iron overload. A large steak has far more iron than a vitamin pill. If you eat red meat heavily over a number of years you will almost certainly accumulate iron. Same with seafood, but most medical people just prattle off what the drug companies tell them - which is that vitamins and supplements are bad and people should get their nutrition from food.

Anyway the blood service recognized that I probably had iron overload - immediately after the first treatment the hemorrhoids I'd had for 6 months disappeared and have never returned.

The sleep apnea which is associated with high red blood cell count took longer but has also gone. Those were my only physical symptoms apart from the blood work.

They have by now removed all of my blood many months later. At first I had venesection every two weeks. Now it is every 3-4 months.

Basically Iron overload is very commonly misdiagnosed as metabolic syndrome and/or fatty liver. If your CRP is normal and you have no known infections then too much iron is the logical culprit - but many GP's seem to pay their mortgage by prescribing medication so they deliberately misdiagnose.

The treatment for Iron overload is non-drug, simply being venesection and there is also some what of a government cover up as they don't want to screen the general population due to funding.

In all the experience left me greatful for losing my hemorrhoids and sleep apnea - and possibly averting much worse disease. But deeply disillusioned with the medical profession in my country.