Posted by Jaynee on April 1, 2002, at 13:40:35
I wasn't going to do this, but I really believe everyone should be informed about this disorder. It is often, misdiagnosed as depression. It is hemochromatosis(iron overload). It is a genetic metabolic disorder that causes you to absorb to much iron from your diet. A simple test like checking your hemoglobin or hematocrit is not good enough to detect it, you can have a low hemoglobin reading and still have iron-overload. You have to check your ferritin and transferrin saturation. I was diagnosed only after the genetic test. Please do yourself a favor and read this information. It is mis-diagnosed 90% of the time.
here are some sites.
http://members.tripod.com/~hemochromatose/aart.html
here is just one of the many articles one HH.
Encore (A Special Report): Upfront
Iron Overload
By Carol Gentry03/19/2001
The Wall Street Journal
R4
(Copyright (c) 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)Feeling tired and achy? Don't shrug it off as age or stress. Above all,
don't start taking iron. That could make it worse.Medical researchers are learning that many adults have a genetic mutation
that causes their bodies to absorb too much iron. The substance silently
builds up in organs and joints until midlife, when the damage begins to
reveal itself.
The disease, hereditary hemochromatosis, afflicts more than one million
Americans, making it the most common genetic disease in North America. It
can be detected with an inexpensive blood test, and the damage is
preventable, yet most cases are never properly diagnosed."Many diseases attributed to old age are actually symptoms of
hemochromatosis," says Sandra Thomas of Daytona Beach, Fla., president of
the American Hemochromatosis Society, a support group. "People in their
golden years could have a better qualify of life if they were diagnosed and
treated."Even though hereditary hemochromatosis is common, most doctors never
diagnose a single case because they aren't looking for it, says Vincent J.
Felitti, director of the Department of Preventive Medicine for the Kaiser
Permanente health plan in San Diego. Since Kaiser-San Diego began screening
adults for iron overload three years ago, it has found 500 cases; Dr.
Felitti expects to find an additional 1,400 or so among the 500,000 Kaiser
Permanente patients in San Diego."The fact is, every practitioner in the country sees a case every two or
three weeks, only they're not recognized because they come in disguised as
something else, or symptoms haven't developed yet" Dr. Felitti says.Patients come in complaining of chronic fatigue, stomachaches, joint pain,
heart palpitations, impotence or depression. After the usual medical workups
lead nowhere, puzzled doctors often send the patient home with a
prescription for Viagra or Prozac. But the iron, undetected, keeps building
up in the organs and joints, leading to arthritis, diabetes, heart
arrhythmias, cirrhosis of the liver and certain cancers.The irony is that both testing and treatment for iron overload are simple. A
"transferrin saturation" test that shows whether excess iron is being
absorbed adds only a few dollars to the cost of a routine blood test, Dr.
Felitti says. A genetic test that identifies 85% of hereditary
hemochromatosis patients is available, and though it isn't necessary for
diagnosis or treatment, it's useful in helping relatives learn they have the
disease before they develop symptoms.Treatment is simple: regular blood draws. When serious iron overload cases
are first caught, experts say, the patient may need to give up one or two
units of blood a week. Once the iron level drops to normal, blood is drawn
about once every three months.Hemochromatosis can be the result of environmental factors -- it often
occurs in Africa from cooking in iron pots -- but the hereditary form of the
disease is more common in Europe and the U.S., with a prevalence of about
four cases per 1,000. Fully 12% of the population are carriers of one, but
not both copies, of the defective gene necessary to develop the disease.The disease isn't caused by eating iron-rich foods, but by over-absorbing
the iron in a normal diet. Iron overload occurs because the defective gene
interferes with the normal function of the intestinal lining and allows too
much iron to pass through to the bloodstream, where it is carried to certain
organs that are sensitive to it, especially the liver. The iron causes
inflammation, which damages the organs.Many patients go for years thinking their symptoms are due to stress. Harry
Kieffer of Cordele, Ga., got that medical assessment when he saw his doctor
due to fatigue, joint pain, irregular heartbeat and migraines. It was easy
to believe; as production manager for a new building-products plant, he was
working 60 to 80 hours a week. "During this whole time, we took
stress-formula vitamins with iron," says Mr. Kieffer's wife, Chris. "We
thought we were being good to ourselves, but were compounding the problem."The American Academy of Pathology in 1996 called for doctors and hospitals
to run iron-status tests on all new patients, but there has been little
movement in that direction. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention say there must be better safeguards in place to prevent
discrimination by insurance companies before widespread screening can begin.
But they say anyone who shows symptoms, or has a relative with the disease,
should ask for a test.---
poster:Jaynee
thread:101304
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020327/msgs/101304.html