Hepatitis C Patients, & Those With a Family History of it, Must Know This

October 15, 2003

By Dr. Joseph Mercola

Last month I saw yet another patient with hepatitis C who was not diagnosed

properly. She is a 33-year-old woman who had a history of drug abuse in the past

and received a diagnosis of hepatitis C that was believed to be due to her drug

abuse history. What the specialists failed to realize was that this woman's

father died from liver failure.

The important point that all her previous physicians failed to recognize was

that many patients with hepatitis C have very high levels of iron. In this

woman's case, when we screened her for high iron levels her ferritin level was

1150 (normal is 20 to 50). She had the highest level of elevated iron levels we

ever measured. The iron was putting a severe oxidative stress on her system and

damaged her immune system sufficiently for her to contract hepatitis C.

I have seen a fair number of patients like this now and I have never seen any of

them have blood tests done to screen for elevated iron. This is most peculiar

since hemochromatosis is the most common genetic disease.

If you know anyone with hepatitis C you could literally save their life by

forwarding them the article I wrote about iron and hepatitis C in April.

Mercola.com April 2, 2003

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