Is it Hepatitis C or Iron Toxicity?

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http://mercola.com/2003/apr/2/iron.htm

 

 

Is it Hepatitis C or Iron Toxicity?

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Joseph Mercola, D.O.

 

 

 

I recently had a patient visit me from Ohio with a remarkable story that needs

to be shared, as it will likely save a number of people’s lives.

 

 

 

This person is a 53-year-old healthy male who had absolutely no symptoms. He was

the picture of health and from looking at him you would never believe he had any

health problems. However, later we wound find out that he was rusting on the

inside and had massive amounts of free radical damage.

 

 

 

Through a routine physical examination, his local traditional doctor found that

he had elevated liver enzymes. So a hepatitis panel was drawn and he was found

to have hepatitis C. He was not content with the traditional recommendations of

going on Interferon as a treatment, so he visited my Web site and learned that

high iron levels are frequently a major factor in most cases of hepatitis. This

is where the story gets interesting.

 

 

 

He asked the doctors to check his iron level, but they basically laughed at him

and refused until he persisted. The doctors ran a serum iron level and that came

back only on the high side of normal. However, he had read my article on how to

properly diagnose iron overload so he further insisted that they run the correct

test to screen for iron overload, which was a serum ferritin level. This came

back elevated, but they still refused to consider that this was contributing to

his problem.

 

 

 

It’s not bad enough to be ignorant, which the vast majority of traditional

medical doctors are, but they don’t have a clue about the real cause of disease.

Instead, they focus their energy on diagnosing symptoms and then learning all

about Band-Aid drug and surgical solutions.

 

 

 

The factor that annoys me more and more is that most of them compound their

ignorance with arrogance. This is a potentially lethal combination for the

patient. The doctors refuse to consider any other options outside of those their

limited perspective allows them to see.

 

 

 

That is exactly what happened here, and if this person had relied on and trusted

their recommendations he would likely be dead in a few short years with the

“convenient” diagnosis of hepatitis C, rather than the correct diagnosis of

death due to doctor ignorance.

 

 

 

Doctors are the leading cause of death in this country because of their

documented mistakes, but believe me, that is only the tiniest tip of the

iceberg. They are responsible for far more deaths from their ignorance of basic

concepts. Iron overload is certainly one of them, but a lack of appreciation of

the influence of insulin on health is another.

 

 

 

When I finally drew this man’s ferritin level in my office it was 1000--the

second highest I have ever seen. A good number is 50. Anything above 100 should

be treated, and anything above 300 to 400 is normally considered to be a problem

by traditional doctors. So let me provide further expansion on the relationship

between hepatitis C and iron toxicity.

 

First it is important to gain some perspective on hepatitis C. One study on the

costs of hepatitis C provides a proper perspective, which I list below. You can

also review the CDC’s hepatitis C information for further information.

 

Cost & Incidence of Hepatitis C Infection

 

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) cost the United States about $5.46 billion in 1997. The

estimate puts the cost of HCV on par with the national costs of asthma and

rheumatoid arthritis, two other chronic disorders.

 

The hepatitis C virus causes inflammation of the liver and is the most common

chronic blood-borne infection in the United States. The virus can be spread by

sex with an infected person, transfusion of infected blood or contaminated

needles. HCV is the most common cause of liver transplantation in the United

States, the study notes.

 

The investigators, from the University of California at Davis Medical Center in

Sacramento, believe that the cost of HCV infection justifies requests for

increased funding to expand efforts directed at prevention, screening, treatment

and research.

 

Although HCV infection is not as costly as HIV infection, which in 1992 was

estimated to cost $30 billion, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

estimates that:

 

HCV-related mortality could triple within the next 10 to 20 years.

 

According to the report, HCV infection that results in chronic liver disease

accounts for about 92 percent of the costs while infection that leads to primary

liver cancer accounts for the remaining eight percent of costs.

 

How to Properly Diagnose Iron Overload

 

 

Iron overload, or hemochromatosis, is actually the most common inherited

disease. You can find out all the technical details from reading my article on

how to diagnose iron overload.

 

Iron has been known to be associated with infection for 30 years.[1] [2] [3] It

appears that iron chelators have great potential to become an important tool for

fighting bacterial and viral infections.[4] When excess iron is present, the

body’s normal antibacterial mechanisms become severely compromised.[5] [6] [7]

 

I am certain that high iron levels are what contributed to this person coming

down with hepatitis C. Was the solution for him interferon? Absolutely not. The

interferon itself may have killed him. It in no way, shape or form addressed the

problem of excess iron, which was causing severe damage in his liver and

creating massive amounts of free radicals.

 

Treatment for Iron Toxicity

 

If you were to listen to traditional medicine the only solution for iron

overload is to donate a pint of blood every two weeks. This is not a very

effective solution and may require many years before it works as up to 50

therapeutic phlebotomies may be necessary.

 

Measuring iron levels is a very important part of optimizing your health.

However, simply measuring serum iron, as I said earlier, is a poor way to do

this. Frequently the serum iron will be normal. The most useful of the indirect

measures of iron status in the body is through a measure of the serum ferritin

level in conjunction with a total iron binding level.

 

If you find elevated serum ferritin levels, you do not have to perform

therapeutic phlebotomies. A simple extract from rice bran called phytic acid, or

IP6, can serve as a very effective form of iron chelation that is non-toxic,

inexpensive and can be done without a prescription.

 

Tsuno Food & Rice Company of Wakayama, Japan is the only manufacturer of IP6 in

the world; any brand you purchase would come from this company. Since it is all

the same product, the least expensive brand is probably the best one to choose,

and Jarrow seems to have the best prices.

 

Iron chelators have also been used in the treatment of one of the most common

infections in the world, malaria.[8] Over 200 million people are infected every

year with the malaria parasite, and over 1 million die from the infection. IP6

was used over 15 years ago to treat malaria,[9] but there is a lack of recent

trials on its use. This may be because IP6 only became commercially available in

1998.

 

 

 

 

 

Related Articles:

 

How to Diagnose Iron Overload

 

Women Can Have Too Much Iron

 

How to Diagnose Iron Overload

 

Iron Can Have Devastating Effects on Your Health

 

 

 

References:

 

[1] Weinberg ED. Role of iron in host-parasite interactions. J Infect Dis. 1971

Oct;124(4):401-10

 

[2] Weinberg ED. Iron and susceptibility to infectious disease. Science. 1974

May 31;184(140):952-6

 

[3] Weinberg ED. Roles of metallic ions in host-parasite interactions. Bacteriol

Rev. 1966 Mar;30(1):136-51

 

[4] Marx JJ. Iron and infection: competition between host and microbes for a

precious element. Best Pract Res Clin Haematol. 2002 Jun;15(2):411-26.

 

[5] Ward CG, Bullen JJ, Rogers HJ. Iron and infection: new developments and

their implications. J Trauma. 1996 Aug;41(2):356-64.

 

[6] Bullen JJ. The significance of iron in infection. Rev Infect Dis. 1981

Nov-Dec;3(6):1127-38

 

[7] Wooldridge KG, Williams PH. Iron uptake mechanisms of pathogenic bacteria.

FEMS Microbiol Rev. 1993 Nov;12(4):325-48.

 

[8] Pradines B, Rolain JM, Ramiandrasoa F, et al. Iron chelators as antimalarial

agents: in vitro activity of dicatecholate against Plasmodium falciparum. J

Antimicrob Chemother. 2002 Aug;50(2):177-87.

 

[9] Mintzer CL, Deloron P, Rice-Ficht A, et al. Reduced parasitemia observed

with erythrocytes containing inositol hexaphosphate. Antimicrob Agents

Chemother. 1988 Mar;32(3):391-4.

 

 

 

 

 

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