Have you ever heard of Ceruloplasmin? 

Have you ever heard of Ceruloplasmin? 

It is quiet. Not famous. Not sexy. But very important.

  • First, Biology 101: Amino acids are the building blocks (like Lego pieces).
  • Proteins are the structures built from those pieces. – Ceruloplasmin is a large protein made from many amino acids linked together. Your liver manufactures it, and then releases it into the bloodstream where it carries copper safely through the blood and helps iron move where it needs to go.

Ceruloplasmin is basically an Uber.

Your liver makes this very large and carefully folded protein, and its main job is to carry copper safely around the body. Copper is a tiny mineral that helps with a lot of important jobs like:

  • making energy
  • helping iron work properly
  • building blood vessels and hormones
  • supporting the brain and immune system
  • making skin pigment (melanin)

So copper is useful… but it’s also a bit like a toddler with a hammer — helpful in the right situation, not so much if left unsupervised.

That’s why your body puts copper inside ceruloplasmin, the Uber, to move it around safely.

The Important Bit

Ceruloplasmin doesn’t just move copper…It also helps iron get where it needs to go in the body.

Think of it like this:

  • Iron is the delivery truck
  • Copper is the engine
  • Ceruloplasmin is the ignition key

Without ceruloplasmin:

  • iron can get stuck in storage
  • blood cells may struggle to form properly
  • people can look anemic even when iron is present in the body because it is not in the blood, which is where we look for it 👀

This is why people sometimes have:

  • fatigue that doesn’t resolve
  • neurological symptoms that don’t respond to treatment
  • anemia that doesn’t respond to iron


So these symptoms are not treatable, medicatable disease states, but rather a signal that the body isn’t managing copper or iron efficiently

Some ways we can look at this with ‘new eyes’:

  • poor mineral balance
  • low bioavailable copper
  • retinol (real vitamin A) issues
  • magnesium depletion
  • chronic stress burning through minerals

In other words…

The body is struggling to activate and use minerals, not necessarily lacking anything….


Your body has copper……but the Uber drivers are missing.

So copper is either:

🚫 not getting picked up
🚫 not getting delivered
🚫 or sitting around causing chaos

Meanwhile iron is in the warehouse yelling:

🙋🏽‍“HELLO? Anyone going to deliver me to the red blood cells?!” 🗣

So while the name sounds like something from a chemistry exam, ceruloplasmin is really just part of the body’s mineral transport system — helping copper and iron get to the right place at the right time.  How strange then, that in this modern era of medical miracles, biohacking and supplement abundance, no-one is talking about the 1 puzzle piece that most of us didn’t even know we were missing

Find the piece and slot it in  Start rebalancing and feeling better.  Why wait?

~Michelle

Whatsapp 0842142127 or email healthcoach@1smallstep to get started

Modern Food, Angry Joints

Modern Food, Angry Joints

🫣 Unpopular POV… If arthritis were caused by age alone, every person over 60 would be stiff, sore, and shuffling.

🧐 And no young people would suffer, and that’s simply not the case.

🍽️ Arthritis has more to do with what, when and how you eat than how many birthdays you’ve had.

We all know people in their 30s with joint pain. And we all know people in their 70s who garden, surf, walk mountains, or kneel on the floor like toddlers.

🤕 Why does this idea feels so uncomfortable? Maybe because aging is passive, but food, stress, and lifestyle aren’t.

If arthritis is “just getting older,” then it’s inevitable; but if it’s driven by inflammation, blood sugar swings, mineral imbalances, gut irritation, and modern food… then suddenly there’s participation involved 🗣️

And that’s confronting.

🔥Chronic inflammation, blood sugar chaos, mineral imbalances (calcium going where it shouldn’t, magnesium not being where it should), poor fat metabolism, gut permeability and yes — the food we eat every single day without thinking about it, all combine to create a terrain that will fuel deterioration🌀

Arthritis isn’t a lightning strike ⚡ It’s more like death by a thousand small, socially acceptable choices.

A very unpopular food truth

🍞 Modern food isn’t neutral.

⛔ Ultra-processed oils, refined carbohydrates, excess sugar, and mineral-stripped foods quietly fan inflammatory flames for years before symptoms show up 🔥

Joints don’t get angry for no reason ~ Pain isn’t random.

🤫 It’s the end of a very long conversation the body has been trying to have quietly.

Long before joints hurt, the body often whispers:  🤕 fatigue, stiffness, poor recovery, digestive issues, restless sleep etc., so that by the time pain shows up, compensation has run out.

The quiet role of food

Ultra-processed foods, refined carbohydrates, damaged fats, and sugar don’t cause instant arthritis.

They create an inflammatory environment that joints have to try and function in for years.

Arthritis isn’t a lightning strike.

It’s accumulation.

🔫 What about genetics I hear you ask?

For sure Genetics loads the gun, but it’s choices that determine of the trigger ever gets pulled.

Your birthday didn’t inflame your joints. 🕯️🕯️🕯️

Your body simply reached the point where it couldn’t adapt anymore.

⁉️ If arthritis were only age-related, curiosity would be pointless.

But if food, digestion, minerals, and inflammation matter, then questions matter too ‼️

And better questions lead to better options. And better options lead to a healthier terrain.  And a healthier terrain leads to less deterioration – healthier, pain-free mobility being only 1 perk of this process…

Time to see the health coach?

📲 healthcoach@1smallstep is how you book your appointment.