Iron is the new Cholesterol?
nautil.us
nautil.us
- In healthy people, excess iron is not absorbed in your small intestine and is passed along with other digestive waste.
- There are actually three HFE genes.
- Hemochromatosis is an autosomal recessive disorder. You need two defective copies of the HFE genes in order to be affected. This can be one defective copy of two genes, or two defective copies of the same gene. Some unlucky people have two defective copies of each gene.
- The HFE genes are almost exclusively found in people with British and Irish heritage. You should really only be concerned about HFE-related Hemochromatosis if your genetic background has a strong connection to the isles. There are other genes found elsewhere that can cause Hemochromatosis though.
- Ferritin is the body's way of packaging the reactive iron atoms into a less-reactive molecule for storage (in your liver, brain, kidneys, gonads, heart, pancreas, and joints) and transport.
- The article fails to mention the actual, known symptoms of hemochromatosis: chronic fatigue, liver problems, low sex drive, arthritis.
- The treatment for hemochromatosis is diet management, regular ferritin checks, and the occasional phlebotomy.
The wikipedia article can go into more depth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemochromatosis
As always: I am not a doctor. If you have medical concerns, see a doctor. If you're particularly concerned about if you have hemochromatosis, talk to your doctor about your concerns and if a CBC with differential and ferritin test is right for you. If you're concerned about passing on a defective gene to your child, talk to your doctor about a referral to a genetic counselor. Mail-in genetic tests are not meant to diagnose or treat any disease.
See. a. DOCTOR.
How do you reconcile this with the fact that it’s so easy to get iron poisoning? This used to be a problem until the 1980s or so, when US regulations were changed and now iron supplements aren’t available in the quantities they used to be.
The episode is among the few that you cannot stream from their own website, but it's, still on YouTube[0]. I am pretty sure legal threats from Kellogs had to do with tgat, because the week after the episode in question aired, people on that program were forced to publically apologise for joking that Kellogs was putting crusher bicycles in their cornflakes. Also, Kellogs actually took out a full-page ad stating that they don't and that the people on that show were slandering.
The corporation doth protest to much, methinks.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2AC0E0D930B52A07
It’s also misinformation that your body won’t absorb iron because of calcium intake, it’s just that calcium inhibits iron absorption somewhat, and only short-term, it doesn’t stop it completely. It’s not that well understood.
> [mineral iron] it will react in your stomach and change to Fe2+
Wouldnd't the presence of an acid-neutralizing ingredient like milk negatively affect this process?
> it’s just that calcium inhibits iron absorption somewhat, and only short-term, it doesn’t stop it completely.
Could you be a bit more precise when you say "short-term"? If it basically reduces absorption for the current meal the point of it defeating iron absorbtion is still valid.
Personal correspondence with a nutrition PhD. Not going to identify for unrelated reasons.
> Wouldnd't the presence of an acid-neutralizing ingredient like milk negatively affect this process?
Milk is acidic in the first place. In either case, it doesn’t raise the pH of your stomach very much.
> Could you be a bit more precise when you say "short-term"?
Short enough that the effect is gone before you finish digesting the meal.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21462112/
From what I gather, there were some studies that claimed that calcium interferes with iron absorption, and it’s clear that it does, but it might not have much of an effect on nutrition.
I have to wonder why people feel compelled to write such articles.
we have blood checks. get your regular checkups. ask your family about diseases they had and make sure you get regular checkups for those and avoid lifestyles that trigger them.
"Low iron Cheerios, now with added sugar"