Posted by Jaynee on April 1, 2002, at 20:26:24
In reply to Hemochromatosis » Jaynee, posted by IsoM on April 1, 2002, at 13:49:53
Actually with regards to females and HH, you are wrong. I am only 37 and I started to really show symptoms in my late teens. We(females) would have to lose a lot of blood during our menses to get rid of the amount of iron we absorb.
You said your son had anemia. Did that show up on his hemoglobin, or did the doctor actually do a full iron study? Most people just don't understand the disorder or how common it is. They now know 1 in 27 Irish has the full blown disorder. 1 in 4 Irish carry the gene. Just carrying the gene, can cause you to absorb to much iron. So if you are irish get tested.
Here is a interesting article on HH and treatment resistant mental illness.
J Clin Psychiatry 1997 Feb;58(2):74-8
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Iron overload among a psychiatric outpatient population.Feifel D, Young CW.
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093-8620, USA.
BACKGROUND: Iron overload has been suggested to be an unrecognized cause of psychiatric
morbidity. This study sought to estimate the prevalence of iron overload in a large outpatient
psychiatric clinic. METHOD: A retrospective review of screening blood chemistries was
conducted on 661 active outpatients at a large, university outpatient psychiatric clinic to identify
elevated iron status results (plasma iron, percentage of iron saturation) suggestive of iron
overload. Patients with positive profiles were asked to undergo a subsequent blood chemistry to
confirm positive results (plasma iron, percentage of iron saturation, plus plasma ferritin). Patients
with positive repeated iron chemistry results were considered likely candidates for iron overload.
RESULTS: Twenty-one patients (3.2%) were identified as meeting one of the criteria suggestive
of iron overload on initial screening reports. Thirty-one percent of those who underwent
subsequent, confirmatory testing (5/16) continued to meet one of the criteria. On the basis of
these results, we estimated a 1% (3.2 x 0.31) prevalence rate of likely candidates for iron
overload. A review of these patients' charts indicated that they carried an unexpectedly high rate
of bipolar affective disorder (80%) as a diagnosis and were, without exception, atypical in that
they were resistant to conventional psychiatric treatment and lacked a family history for this
disorder. The prevalence of positive iron overload profiles on a routine blood chemistry was
similar to the prevalence of positive thyroid abnormalities based on TSH results in this population.
CONCLUSION: Blood chemistry profiles suggestive of iron overload may be associated with a
small portion of treatment-resistant psychiatric patients. Routine screening for iron abnormalities,
especially in treatment-resistant patients, should be considered. Further studies are required to
determine the causal association, if any, between iron excess and primary psychiatric illnesses.PMID: 9062376 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
poster:Jaynee
thread:101304
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020327/msgs/101361.html