Welcome to Culture Clinic, MedPage Today's collaboration with Northwell Health to offer a healthcare professional's take on the latest viral medical topics.
"Ferritin face" is one of the latest terms circulating on social media to describe a set of features that may offer visual clues to underlying health issues.
Social media users post photos of their dull skin, pale conjunctiva, dark circles under the eyes, and brittle hair and nails and attribute it to low ferritin or iron deficiency. Often, they urge others to get their levels checked.
"Shout out to the person who commented on one of my videos ... 'you should get your ferritin levels checked because your lips are very pale,'" one woman said in a TikTok video that has more than 100,000 likes. "It turns out there's a reason for why I look so tired and crappy all the time."
Experts told MedPage Today that, while not diagnostic, the visual tells of so-called ferritin face may offer clues to underlying deficiencies like anemia.
