Iron Can Have Devastating Effects on Your Health

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http://mercola.com/2002/dec/11/iron.htm

 

 

Iron Can Have Devastating Effects on Your Health

 

 

 

 

 

 

The human body has the ability to naturally store iron, however, too much iron

in the body may be linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other diseases.

 

 

 

In a recent study of elderly Americans, 13 percent of participants had high

serum ferritin (SF), or iron stores, which were defined as SF levels of over 300

µg/L in men and over 200 µg/L in women. Dietary factors, including consuming

iron-containing supplements, were significant risk factors.

 

 

 

Fruit or fruit juice and red meat were also associated with a risk of high iron

stores. Participants who consumed three or more servings of fruit/fruit juice a

day had a much higher risk of high iron stores than those who consumed two

servings a day. Moreover, those who consumed more than four servings of red meat

a weak had three times the risk of high iron stores than participants who ate

four servings a week. Eating light meat, such as poultry, and seafood did not

affect the risk.

 

 

 

An increased risk of high iron stores was also found among participants who

chronically took high amounts of iron supplements (30 mg a day) intended for

short-term clinical treatment. However, an increased risk was also found among

those who consumed between 12 and 30 mg of iron a day, an amount commonly found

in multivitamins. Researchers note that these findings suggest the use of

supplemental iron, when not prescribed, by Americans who consume a Western-type

diet (typically high in red meat) is unnecessary.

 

 

 

Conversely, the consumption of whole grains was found to decrease the risk of

high iron stores. Those who consumed more than seven servings of whole grains

per week had a 77 percent lower risk of high iron stores than those who did not

eat whole grains. The association may be due to the inhibitory effect of fiber

on the absorption of nonheme iron, researchers say.

 

 

 

American Journal Clinical Nutrition December 2002 76:1375-1384

 

 

 

DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT:

 

Let me start by saying that it is important when evaluating a study to look at

who performed it. This study passes as first rate as it was done at the Jean

Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging,

Tufts University, Boston, and the Boston University School of

Medicine/Framingham Heart Study in Boston. This is one of the best nutrition

graduate schools in the world.

 

 

 

To top it off, the study was funded by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association

and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, yet was still published despite its less

than ideal light on beef consumption. There doesn’t seem to be any conflict of

interest in this study. That is one of the reasons why the American Journal of

Clinical Nutrition is one of my favorite journals.

 

 

 

Iron is nature’s rusting agent, and excess levels of iron in our bodies is one

of the most potent ways that our body becomes oxidized, or prematurely aged.

 

 

 

Iron creates a dilemma in that iron deficiency is the most common

single-nutrient deficiency disease in the world and is a major concern for

approximately 15 percent of the world's population. Iron is also a major

nutrient needed by most children and menstruating women.

 

 

 

However, most men have a problem with too much iron because iron is not readily

excreted through the body's usual excretory routes of urine, bile and sweat;

rather, the primary way in which iron is lost is through the shedding of cells

from the skin or gastrointestinal tract or through blood loss, as in menstrual

blood loss or chronic or acute hemorrhage.

 

 

 

I believe measuring iron levels is a very important part of optimizing your

health. However, simply measuring serum iron is a poor way to do this, because

the most useful of the indirect measures of iron status in the body is through a

measure of the serum ferritin level.

 

 

 

If you find elevated iron 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. So any brand you purchase would come from this company. Since it is

all the same product the least expensive brand is probably the way to go and

Jarrow seems to have the best prices.

 

 

 

I have compiled a list of over 125 references to medical literature documenting

the importance of iron and its influence on heart disease, cancer and

infections. I hope to post it after my schedule allows me to transform it into

something that is more readable.

 

 

 

 

 

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