Hemochromatosis is iron overload caused by genetic mutations that about 30% of people carry. Excess iron deposits in the liver, pancreas, heart, and brain, triggering cancer, diabetes, heart failure, and Alzheimer's. It's easily screened and treated, but often missed until serious damage occurs.
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Will you tell us a little bit about what hemochromatosis is? Probably a lot of listeners have never even heard of this. So hemochromatosis is where you have too much iron. It can also be called iron overload. And there's 3 different hemochromatosis genes, and about 30% of the population, probably more, has a hemochromatosis gene. So what happens is when you have these genes, or even if you don't have these genes, you end up becoming high in iron. If you have too much of it, then it it can really be a problem because your body doesn't have a lot of ways to get rid of iron other than through, like, blood loss is the main way. So this is why women tend— especially premenopausal women— tend to have a lower risk for hemochromatosis. But it can still happen, especially if you have the right combination of genetics and epigenetics. Basically, you get too much iron and the iron starts depositing in your tissues, and it creates a lot of oxidative stress, which just means, like, it's creating a lot of damage in those tissues. And iron likes to deposit in certain parts of the body. It really likes to deposit in the liver, and it likes to deposit in the pancreas. So in the liver, it can cause liver cancer, fatty liver damage. It'll deposit in the pancreas causing like type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, inflammation in the pancreas. It'll deposit in the heart causing cardiovascular disease, plaque and congestive heart disease, increasing your risk for a heart attack. It'll deposit in your brain causing Alzheimer's, dementia, Parkinson's, bipolar, you name it, depression. It'll deposit in your skin, causing skin cancer, pituitary gland causing thyroid disease, Hashimoto's, non-Hashimoto's thyroid, hypothyroidism and stuff. So a serious issue, and it's really a root cause issue that is easy to diagnose and screen for and treat, yet most people go undiagnosed and untreated. The primary problem of the having too much iron, and then they get these secondary diagnoses of hypothyroidism or liver disease or liver cancer. Or diabetes or heart disease. And the really, the underlying problem is like they were not properly treated for the hemochromatosis.
