About 1 in every 300-400 people of white Northern European ancestry (one in 600-800 in coloured populations) suffer from a hereditory disease that can dangerously store up too much iron in your body, it is called haemachromatosis (pronounced: he-ma-crow-ma-toe-sis) or Iron Overload (I.O.). It is kind of like the opposite of anaemia where you have too little iron in your body though strangely enough they do share some similar symptoms such as lethargy and weakness.
Even though only about 1 in 300 people get it I.O., one in 7 carry the gene making it one of the most common hereditory diseases. When you have I.O. too much iron is absorbed from your diet and gets stored mainly in your liver and your joints, unfortunately your body can’t squirt it out when it gets too much and left untreated it can make you sick and shorten your life.
This is a great shame because when it is detected early it is easy to fix, you don’t even need drugs or surgery. One of the big problems is getting I.O. diagnosed in the first place, it effects men earlier than women (30 to 60 years) and it shares many symptoms with other diseases, apart from lethargy these may include abdominal pain, arthritis (especially in the first two fingers), hair loss, forgetfulness, jaundice, mood swings and extreme irritability.
I.O. left untreated can give you liver cirrosis, impotence, diabetes and heart disease, it can be misdiagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia even though it is really simple to confirm with a blood test.
Your liver can be a very robust organ but when it’s had enough you can find out very suddenly and dramatically, when you have I.O. this might come about after a big boozy night that can give you the mother of all hang overs.( Alcohol does not mix well with I.O.) It may be several days after you have had that big night out and you still feel shattered then your doctor might give you that blood test that finally picks up your I.O.
Blood letting has gone out of fashion since the middle ages to treat most things but not I.O., infact it is the only way of treating it directly. This can happen in the form of a phlebotomy or venesection which are identical procedures to donating blood. When 500 mls (one pint) of blood is taken with a regularity in proportion to the iron levels in your body over time, those nasty things that can happen to your liver, pancreas, heart and sex life can be completely avoided.
As always there are things you can do to help yourself manage I.O., avoiding alcohol, going easy on red meat consumption, raw seafood such as oysters are particularly hazardous, dark chocolate may not agree with you and taking iron or vitamin C supplements are out too. Vitamin C from fresh fruit is ok though.
Pretty unusual sounding disease isn’t it? I.O. can even set off metal detectors!, it is good for one thing though, it will make you a regular blood donor, it will make you a giving person even if you don’t want to be.