| A few things this article misses: - In healthy people, excess iron is not absorbed in your small intestine and is passed along with other digestive waste. - There are actually three HFE genes. - Hemochromatosis is an autosomal recessive disorder. You need two defective copies of the HFE genes in order to be affected. This can be one defective copy of two genes, or two defective copies of the same gene. Some unlucky people have two defective copies of each gene. - The HFE genes are almost exclusively found in people with British and Irish heritage. You should really only be concerned about HFE-related Hemochromatosis if your genetic background has a strong connection to the isles. There are other genes found elsewhere that can cause Hemochromatosis though. - Ferritin is the body's way of packaging the reactive iron atoms into a less-reactive molecule for storage (in your liver, brain, kidneys, gonads, heart, pancreas, and joints) and transport. - The article fails to mention the actual, known symptoms of hemochromatosis: chronic fatigue, liver problems, low sex drive, arthritis. - The treatment for hemochromatosis is diet management, regular ferritin checks, and the occasional phlebotomy. The wikipedia article can go into more depth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemochromatosis As always: I am not a doctor. If you have medical concerns, see a doctor. If you're particularly concerned about if you have hemochromatosis, talk to your doctor about your concerns and if a CBC with differential and ferritin test is right for you. If you're concerned about passing on a defective gene to your child, talk to your doctor about a referral to a genetic counselor. Mail-in genetic tests are not meant to diagnose or treat any disease. See. a. DOCTOR. |
How do you reconcile this with the fact that it’s so easy to get iron poisoning? This used to be a problem until the 1980s or so, when US regulations were changed and now iron supplements aren’t available in the quantities they used to be.