News Hooks - Journalist Alert
Here is a list of possible news hooks. This is the freshest science from peer reviewed medical literature. To give you scale consider that there are about 20,000 people in the US with cystic fibrosis. And now see the millions who have iron overload. The following is a list of surprises about the nutrient iron:
1. Iron is essential for every cell in the body, yet too much is toxic. Excess iron stores in the body tissues and organs where it injures to the point of death. A normal metabolism for iron protects the body by refraining to absorb more iron than the daily need. Iron once absorbed is not excreted. Blood loss is the only way stored iron levels are lowered. Hemochromatosis is the most common of the iron overload diseases. To find out the involvement of your own community: take your population and divide by 1000 then multiple by 5. In the Greater New York City Area there are 115,000 people with the double gene expression for hemochromatosis.2. Homozygosity or double gene expression is 1 in 200. This means that 1.5 million Americans are going to overload iron at some point in their lives even from an ordinary diet. Some population segments such as the Scott/Irish and African-American have twice the double gene expression, 1 in 100, and a carrier rate of an amazing 20%. In Ireland they are reporting an astonishing carrier rate of 33%. That is that one person in three has at least partial genetics for hemochromatosis.
3. Heterozygosity or single gene expression for hemochromatosis is about 13% to 20% of the population. These people too will overload iron if they self medicate with over-the-counter iron, or vitamin C, or drink alcohol. Estimates for this group is 32 million. The estimates for the single and double gene expression are 10 years old. This is sometimes referred to as the "carrier rate." More recent studies have these rates for some groups at twice or three times these figures. Although universal screening has been suggested, and proven to be cost-effective, there is scant progress in this area.
4. There are eleven other disorders that can cause iron overload. Though they are more rare it is possible to have some of them in coincidence with hemochromatosis.
5. Both sexes are equally involved and we have found no population that is safe from these disorders. An overload of iron can occur at any age from unborn in the womb to the elderly. Pregnant women should not be given iron without checking their iron status. Newborns can be affected.
6. Infectious diseases such as AIDS or hepatitis will do worse in the presence of stored iron. Excess iron compromises your immune system at the same time that it feeds infections.
7. There are an estimated 16 million diabetics in the US. Iron overload causes a significant amount of this diabetes. If this problem is based on iron it can be treated and the diabetes will be arrested and in some cases can be reversed. This population should be but is not being checked for iron overload.
8. A recent Finnish study found that people who donate blood - reduce their iron - can prevent heart attacks. This has nothing to do with genetics but means everybody. One of our board members, Jerome Sullivan MD PhD, saw this 20 years ago. They have found that even occasional or seldom blood donations are beneficial.
9. What about iron deficiency anemia that we all have heard so much about? Several years ago the World Health Organization, thinking that iron deficiency was the world's worst health problem, went into Africa giving iron pills to the under nourished populace. The recipients all started dying of opportunistic infections and parasites they were all carrying, chiefly malaria. We now know that being low in iron is a protection against disease. Too much iron compromises the immune system while it feeds infections. Most labs in this country have normal limits for iron set too high. One researcher, William Crosby MD, has called iron deficiency anemia " a nothing disease " without symptoms. Low energy will never require iron, but other regimens. Anemia is not necessarily iron deficiency. Many anemias are themselves iron loading. True low iron is an indication of chronic infection, bleeding ulcer or cancer. Iron should never be given to remedy an anemia. Iron tests must first be given, and if iron value is low, the cause must be found and corrected. Most anemias are in fact B vitamin deficiencies.
12. Hemochromatosis is easy to prevent, easy to detect and east to treat. Treatment, if caught in time, will return the patient to a normal life span and reverse most if not all symptoms. For these reasons we say that death from hemochromatosis is a wrongful death.
13. There are 42 million people at risk for iron overload in the U. S. population alone. Some population segments such as the Scott/Irish and the African Americans have twice the double gene frequency and an amazing 20% carrier rate in the U.S. You may be risking your health if you take multi vitamins or over-the-counter vitamin C without knowing your iron storage status.
14. Excess iron crosses the blood-brain barrier where it may cause or make worse neurological problems such Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, ALS, Parkinson's, Hallervorden-Spatz Syndrome and even psychological problems. Iron overload is involved in cerebral malaria and mental problems, and is associated with HIV infection. There is of course an elemental need for some iron in the brain. But, when there is iron in an excess of this need the above problems can occur.
15. Our organization sometimes hears from families in the U.S. where most of the members are dead or dying from an overload of iron. If only readily available and cheap iron tests were given routinely, these needless deaths could be prevented. There is one simple blood test that is available from any lab. IOD calls for every man, woman and child in the U.S. to be checked at each and every physical for the rest of their lives because it is so common, treatable and deadly when neglected.
IOD
433 Westwind Drive
North Palm Beach FL 33408-5123
iod@ironoverload.org
Copyright © 2002 by Iron Overload Diseases Association, Inc. - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED