IRON Dr. Cohen and Iron interview

[gabkad]

This is excellent. Dr. John Campbell interviews (sort of) Dr. Michael Cohen:

youtube.com/watch?v=6kvfT7o...(Not working as expected?)

[radd]

gabkad,

Interesting re heamochromotosis' natural selection & The Plague!

Thank you of posting.

[gabkad in reply to radd]

I'm not so sure that he's correct about this. There is an article in The Atlantic Monthly

The Iron in our Blood that Keeps and Kills Us.

theatlantic.com/health/arch...

Maybe with one allele it's protective but with two and the presence of iron overload, it doesn't seem so, at least in this instance.

Having one allele can protect against anemia and maybe in that circumstance there is more resistance to plague. It hasn't been studied or at least I've found nothing to corroborate this.

There is more to this anyway, because the majority of people with two mutations don't get iron overload.

[radd in reply to gabkad]

gabkad,

Yes, the genetic result doesn't diagnosis without symptoms, and then some with haemochromatosis don’t even have a mutation in the HFE gene. The faulty HFE was only identified in 1996 & there are many more mutations yet to be discovered.

I have two impairments and suffer overload so have venesection to reduce levels. My elevations are more transferrin saturation % than ferritin, yet another complication in the mix.

I think they are saying there's a small window when super absorption abilities fill ferritin stores and (although damaging) organs/glands still have room to store further, so not leaving any free. However, as I understood it the organs are used after ferritin, hepcidin, transferrin, etc are full so the article doesn't make sense.

[gabkad in reply to radd]

I had genetic testing done and I have one H63D. It has prevented me from ever becoming anemic. But I had to donate blood 9 times to get ferritin down because it was over range. These days I'm getting ferritin monitored periodically just to see how diet is affecting things. I thought I could avoid having blood removed by not eating red meat for two years. It didn't help because it appears that I absorb iron frombeans and lentils efficiently. By doing AncestryDNA I hooked up with second cousins I knew nothing about. They are the grandchildren and greatgrandchildren of my great grandfather's siblings. So I know where the gene came from and one of them had two alleles with adverse consequences. (Consanginity. 2 generations of cousin marriages). She had to have her thyroid removed due to iron deposition (which I have never heard of before). H63D is not as benign as claimed but it has not been as well studied as C282Y.

My maternal grandfather died of congestive heart failure and diabetes at age 54. In those days there was no medication for the diabetes. My cousin died unexpectedly age 48. I don't know if he had it too. He was my mother's brother's son.

The endocrinologist wanted to know because my haemoglobin is always high (162)

plus the ferritin business. I had a complete iron panel done after the last donation and things were looking good. But my ferritin can increase by over 50 units with no assistance whatsoever. Since I have lactase persistence, I offset iron absorption with dairy.

[radd in reply to gabkad]

gabtak,

Then you might be interested to know that I have been accepted to donate blood as all therapeutic venesection not accessible in UK due to hospital resources used up by COVID (again). They like iron rich blood here 😁. If T/S% gets too high I can't sleep because of restless leg syndrome.

What's the situation in Canada?

[gabkad in reply to radd]

No problem here. Canadian Blood Services readily accepts high iron blood. Some people got really lucky getting my supercharged blood. 🙂However, it does give me a pink complexion. My skin is rather too translucent so my veins look like a map. And going outside in very cold or very hot weather turns me into a tomato. Annoying. People are always asking me if I've gone somewhere sunny for vacation.

😝