Lifeblood

The Natural Connection

As Americans, we tend to identify our generation by our foods, our heroes, and our television commercials. If you were old enough to wear long pants when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, or have purchased Beatles on vinyl, you probably learned all you ever thought you wanted to know about anemia from TV. Who could ever forget our favorite housewife with Iron Poor Blood?

Night after night on prime time TV, the poor haggard woman sat at her kitchen table wearing a faded (anemic) pink bathrobe. Eyes swollen from fatigue, too exhausted to smoke her cigarette, slurp her coffee, or even remove the plastic curlers from her hair, she was a pitiful specimen of the feminine species. Her husband lurked anxiously nearby, wondering if she would even be able to drag her wilted self to the stove to cook his breakfast. Millions of viewers reached for their iron supplements, lest they also become victims of …Iron Poor Blood!

A few seconds later, after sipping a suspicious brown liquid that has “twice the iron found in a pound of calf’s liver”, our housewife is pepped up, simultaneously making pancakes and vacuuming her house. “My wife,” her husband grins proudly, “I think I’ll keep her”. Political correctness aside, I always wondered how cigarettes, caffeine addiction, and vacuum cleaners could be good for anyone’s health, but then, I don’t sell vitamins.

For decades, our nation has feared the fatigue of iron poor blood, and indeed, iron deficiency is still common in young children, pregnant women, and up to 50% of menstruating females. Those patients, on recommendations from their physicians, may still need to sip that yucky brown stuff, or take one of the many palatable forms of iron supplements that are now on the market. But for most of America, it is another story entirely.

Now, with our penchant for high iron foods like red meat and poultry, and due to the fortification of cereals and grain products with iron, iron deficiency is extremely rare in men over age 18, and women after menopause. Rather, the attention of the medical community is beginning to turn to the opposite problem. Iron excess, we believe, comes with its own set of problems.

At the new recommended daily intakes (men older than 19 years: 8 mg; women 11 to 50 years: 18 mg; women older than 51 years: 8 mg), iron is considered nontoxic. However, iron consumed in excess of the body’s needs is stored in tissues such as the liver, kidneys, and the heart. It is known that excess storage of iron in the body can cause organ damage, cirrhosis, diabetes, heart failure, and even death.

Compounding the problem of excessive intake of iron, over 10% of our population, have a genetic mutation that allows them to accumulate excess iron even more easily. In some population groups like African-American and Scotch/Irish, the carrier rate is thought to be over 20%. Even in the mild carrier state, when combined with high iron intake, this abnormality predisposes millions of patients to increased deaths from cardiac causes, and may account for much more illness and mortality than previously recognized.

Researchers at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University recently measured the iron stores of independent living White Americans between the ages of 67 and 96 years who consumed a typical Western diet. Surprisingly, more than three times as many elderly had high iron stores than had iron deficiency. Men were twice as likely as women to have elevated iron levels. Many patients were taking iron supplements, despite their high iron levels, subjecting themselves to added risk.

Multiple studies in Europe and the United States have linked high iron states to atherosclerosis and other forms of heart disease. Heart attacks and strokes appear to be increased in patients with the highest levels of iron. Colon polyps, which may turn into future colon cancers are also increased.

A widely publicized study in Finland revealed that in a group of 2,682 men, blood donors, who presumably decreased their iron levels by donation, were 88 percent less likely than non-donors to have heart attacks. In addition, patients with high iron stores were noted to have a higher incidence of blockages in their carotid arteries than those with normal levels. The Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia has found that men with even moderate levels of iron stores are twice as likely to develop colon polyps than men with lower levels.

The concern about excess iron storage has led many prominent physicians, such as Jerome Sullivan, MD, PhD of the University of Florida to recommend to their patients that they consider regular blood donation as a safe and easy way to decrease their body iron levels, and potentially decrease their own risk of heart disease, while at the same time providing a lifesaving service to their community. Dr. Sullivan has studied the relationship of iron levels and heart disease for over 20 years.

“Based on what we know now, a strong case could be made for recommending blood donation as a way to lower iron levels, thus lowering heart attack risk,” Dr. Sullivan reported in the Journal Circulation.

Readers of this newspaper have seen multiple articles over the past few weeks about the critical shortage of blood supplies in our area. Coming soon to a church or community center near you will be a blood drive. Please consider donating blood. The life you save could be your own.

For more information on iron, please write to The Natural Connection, Dr. Pauline Bellecci, PO BOX 777, Waycross, GA 31501 or visit us on-line at www.swampdocs.com