“Lucky” Fish Could Save Lives (2015) | Hacker News Reader

“Lucky” Fish Could Save Lives (2015)

smithsonianmag.com

20 pointsgnabgib12 comments

Ever since I found out about the below, I've wondered what other cheap, simple and radically effective changes we could also be doing.

The fact:

"Adding iodine to salt in the US led to an 11% increase in income and increase of one standard deviation IQ."

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodised_salt#United_States

Next up is maybe ozempic.

I've heard adding fluoride to water improves teeth, people gonna love it.

OK people, one thing to be aware of :)

I know someone who was diagnosed with too much Iron, I never heard of this. But she said it is a dangerous thing to have. So be careful and talk to a Doctor before doing this on your own. She has to have blood removed a couple of times a year to mitigate this. Plus avoid some foods.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_overload

>People of Northern European descent, including Celtic (Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Breton etc.), English, and Scandinavian origin[26] have a particularly high incidence

Huh, I've heard of this in men, but I thought it wasn't an issue for women, as a monthly blood loss is a pretty good ward against iron overload.

TIL

For her, not an issue anymore and the issue occurred/found afterwards :)

Agreed, guessing only gets you so far and unfortunately the symptoms of iron overload can look similar to those of iron deficiency. Before self-diagnosing and supplementing something like iron (or B12, D, calcium, magnesium, etc) it's worth talking to a doctor and/or getting tested. Most of these tests are inexpensive, especially if you have health coverage, and many doctors will happily prescribe them if you have reasonable concerns.

Once upon a time I was taking a vitamin supplement based on what I assumed I was low in based on my diet, but when I finally got a blood test some years later it turns out I had been supplementing something I didn't need and had an actual deficiency in something I had assumed was fine. Thankfully in my case I was just pissing away money (literally) rather than harming myself, but the fact that I had just guessed at solutions rather than analysing my health using data as I would to diagnose other technically complex system made me feel a little ridiculous.

The incidence for hemosiderosis is somewhere around 1:500 or somesuch. What's underappreciated is anemia due to frequent blood donations. If you give blood regularly and feel off, it's worth getting a lab test for ferritin/TIBC. The outcome might surprise you.

I've seen this pop up every once in a while since 2015, and I think it is cool every time. Makes me use my cast iron skillet more.

I don’t think you get much iron in your food from seasoned cast iron; the polymerized oil is an impermeable barrier. We have a lucky fish and it has what looks like rust all over the surface because the metal is directly exposed to the cooking liquid.

Somewhat unintuitively, cooking with cast iron does in fact contribute significant amounts of iron to the diet, depending on exactly what is cooked.

I suppose the study doesn't say just how well seasoned the skillets were. But pretty much every study dealing with cast iron agrees that it contributes some to the diet, in varying amounts.

There is some debate on whether or not the additional iron is helpful, and in what ways, but that it does add iron to the diet is reasonably well documented.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3722654/

"We do not recommend the use of the fish-shaped iron ingot in Cambodia" -

Randomized controlled trial assessing the efficacy of a reusable fish-shaped iron ingot to increase hemoglobin concentration in anemic, rural Cambodian women - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000291652... (2017)

"This can be used as a strategy for reduction of iron deficiency anemia. However, more research is required to understand the efficacy of this approach." -

Effect of cooking food in iron-containing cookware on increase in blood hemoglobin level and iron content of the food: A systematic review - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8266402/ (2021)

Surface area iron fish - 143 cm2 Leaching ability give temperature (100 C) compared to a simmering pot left to reader

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