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Too Much Iron In The Blood
Iron is critical for nearly all living cells that require a basic metabolism process such as oxygen transport, DNA synthesis, cytochrome p-450 enzyme oxidate metabolism, and electron transport. Iron is a mineral that functions primarily as a carrier or oxygen in the body, with the body increasing and decreasing iron absorption according to its need. Unlike most nutritional metals, iron is highly conserved, and cannot be actively excreted. Iron is normally removed from the body only passively from cell shedding of the skin, GI tract, or by menstruation. Iron overload occurs after many years the body absorbs an abundance or iron which eventually builds up in organ tissues such as the heart, pancreas and the liver. Iron overload is a serious chronic condition that must be properly diagnosed and treated, without diagnosing iron overload can lead to hemochromatosis a potentially life threatening disease. Iron Overload Causes:
Why Iron overload is toxic The cause of iron toxicity is the same in both primary and secondary iron overload. The bodies limited iron storage or transport capacities have been overly exceeded, exposing tissues to highly reactive iron complexes. Hemochromatasis can occur as a result of significant iron over loads. In the United States over 1 million people have hemochromatasis, while the majority of the cases come from genetic disorders. The non genetic causes of hemochromatosis occur from complications such as blood disorders, chronic transfusion therapy, chronic hepatitis, and excessive iron intake. Common Symptoms or Iron overload and hemochromatosis There are factors that may influence the progression of hemochromatosis such as excess iron in a diet, alcohol consumption, Vitamin C intake, Infections, Iron lost thorough menstruation or blood donations, and environmental factors. While there are no real distinct set of symptoms that indicate iron overload, there are some early symptoms of iron overload that include:
As iron overload progresses over time patients often start to experience symptoms such as:
Advanced stages of iron overload such as hemochromatosis are associated with conditions that include:
Diagnosing Diagnosing iron overload as early as possible is essential for preventing many of the live threatening disease's in can potentially make. While routine medical check ups do not normally include testing of iron overload, diagnosing it is as easy as having 2 simple inexpensive blood tests transferrin saturation and serum ferritin. Before getting blood tests know that fasting is required for both blood tests. If you begin to have any of these signs or symptoms ask your health care provider to run these simple test that could help save your life. Treatment The preferred treatment for reducing iron levels in patients is called therapeutic phlebotomy. Phlebotomy is simply the removing of blood from the body. When beginning phlebotomy early it prevents much of the The treatment of phlebotomy usually occurs with one unit of whole blood removed once or twice weekly. Phlebotomy process will continue with patients until all excess iron is removed from the blood, and after this iron levels of the blood are monitored continuously throughout the treatment. The length and frequency of the treatment is determined by the patients age, gender, reason for being diagnosed, and severity of there symptoms. Once the normal iron levels are achieved phlebotomy may be reduced to only 3 or 4 times a year according to individual patient symptoms. Add Your Comments about Medical School MD: |
damage that is caused from iron overloads. Patients who have no evidence of tissue or organ damage can often expect a full normal life when diagnosed. Patients that already have organ or tissue damage when diagnosed can stop the progression of iron over loads and expect to further damage which will reduce symptoms and improve life expectancy.
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