EXCESS IRON IN THE BODY CAN CAUSE DIABETES. ALL DIABETICS SHOULD BE
SCREENED FOR THIS COMMON GENETIC CONDITION BY THEIR DOCTORS.
THE IRON ELEPHANT by Roberta Crawford
( Chapter 7, Page 43/Reprinted with permission of the author):
Untreated Iron Overload Can Give You Diabetes
One day in her doctor’s office in Mississippi Marta started feeling
cold and colder. Nurses wrapped her
in blankets, but she could not get warm. Finally a nurse had to bring
a heater into the office and turn it
full on Marta. The sudden temperature drop had happened before, but
the doctor had not really
believed Marta until this day. This day he hospitalized her.
Hypothyroidism can be a complication of
iron overload.
Looking back at those days, Marta rages that incompetent medical
care–specifically medical ignorance
about iron overload–has ruined her life. Her mother remembers her as
a pretty little kid, a fair delicate
skinned redhead, lively but easily tired.
"If I had seen a Dr. Crosby at age fifteen," she says, "my life would
have been different." Instead of
being disabled, Marta is certain she would now be normal, with
husband, children, career. William H.
Crosby is a world wide authority on hemochromatosis. Marta had met
him at an IOD symposium.
At age twenty-nine Marta completed menopause and thus gave up her
dreams of having children.
Unsuccessful efforts to have a baby have scuttled many a marriage.
Marta gave up on those efforts
because of her many no-name illnesses.
Emotional scars deepened years later when a fiancé jilted her just two
weeks before their wedding.
"Failing libido…low energy…it was too much for him," Marta says.
Health problems mounted. The act of eating became so strenuous that
Marta would have to look for a
place to lie down after meals. It was not that she neglected medical
care. She allowed physicians to
perform dilation and curettage and two laparoscopies. She describes
that procedure as "going in
through the navel and looking around."
Marta started suffering a series of influenses. "I never really got
over one"," she says," they sort of
overlapped." Doctors kept her on constant antibiotics, and for more
than a year prescribed massive
doses of Motrin for painful, crooked fingers. The medication did not
help.
Profoundly exhausted and depressed, Marta visited her mother in
Indiana for two weeks to recuperate.
Friends were startled by her "greenish" color. Marta tried to help
her color by sunbathing at poolside.
Otherwise she slept for days and days. But Marta could not rest away
the deep fatigue.
Back to Mississippi and back to doctors. "Well, your liver enzymes
are elevated," said a doctor, "but if it
were anything serious you’d be dead." When Marta asked for a second
opinion, the doctor became
defensive. "Why: You don’t think I can take care of you?" Marta
nevertheless sought help from an
internist.
Finally a urine check revealed sugar. Diabetes was diagnosed. Iron
overload was then detected at last.
Marta’s first migraine headache struck while she was in the hospital.
Since then the headaches–"three
day killers"–have become a weekly way of life.
Now Marta occupies herself with twice weekly phlebotomies to unload
the iron and with managing her
diabetes. She reflects on what has happened to her family. Her
younger sister, Marybeth, working in
television in New Jersey, then received a belated diagnosis as well.
Marybeth’s blood tests had also
revealed elevated liver enzymes that were ignored. At age eleven
Marybeth underwent treatment for
hepatitis. The family’s doctor was the same man who had treated their
father, dead of a stroke, enlarged
heart and enlarged liver at fifty-eight. His sickly brother had died
at fifty-four; the father of the two
brothers had died at fifty-five.
One thing that makes Marta grind her teeth is a notation that she saw
on medical records: "doubt
hemochromatosis." This note was entered not once but twice over the
years. Why was the suspicion not
followed up? she cries.
Clinical manifestations of diabetes in a hemochromatosis patient are
indistinguishable from those of any
diabetes.. Severity depends upon the amount of iron load and whether
the diabetes is discovered early or
late in the course of iron accumulation. You can expect improvement
in about half of all patients when
you unload the iron aggressively. Some patients are able to reduce or
discontinue insulin injections. This
outcome depends on the vigor of therapy.
Harold was a successful building contractor with an attractive wife
and three sons. The family divided
their time between Palm Beach and Bar Harbor, Maine. One day it
happened. Harold received the
unhappy diagnosis that he had diabetes. He was a man of means. He
could afford the best in medical
care, so Harold immediately checked in at the Joslin Clinic in Boston.
Blood sugar is difficult to regulate when the underlying cause of
pancreas damage in excess iron, unless
that iron is removed. Harold’s doctors at the clinic did not ask, "is
iron involved?"
It is preferable, of course, to find the iron before pancreas damage,
but every diabetic should be carefully
evaluated for iron. When physicians do not suspect iron overload,
they do not look for it; when they do
not look for iron overload, they do not find it.
The clinic gave Harold diet instructions and he went home to manage
the diabetes. But the diabetes was
unmanageable. Harold collapsed and ended in the hospital, where
hemochromatosis was finally
diagnosed.
Too late. Harold at that time had three months left of life.
Death certificates that list diabetes as the cause of death often omit
the real underlying cause:
hemochromatosis. No. The real cause is ignorance. You can
successfully treat hemochromatosis when
you detect it early.
"My grandmother and mother both died of diabetes," says a new
hemochromatosis patient thoughtfully.
The diabetes that often develops in iron overloaded individuals used
to be called bronze diabetes because
of the skin pigmentation that sometimes occurs. Iron can darken the
skin. However, it is a mistake to
rule out a diagnosis on the basis of light skin. Excess iron presents
many variables.
Most people who suffer iron caused diabetes are unaware they are iron
overloaded.
———————————————————————————————-
Note: It is estimated that 10% of all diabetics have iron overload
caused diabetes. This cause can be
ruled out by the doctor by performing the following blood work: serum
iron, TIBC, serum ferritin, and
percent of saturation.
Sandra Thomas, National Director of Public Education
Iron Overload Diseases Association, Inc. (non-profit)
About the Author:
Roberta Crawford is the founder/president of the Iron Overload
Diseases Association, Inc. (non-profit),
the international clearinghouse for information on iron
overload/hemochromatosis, a genetic disease of
high iron storage in the body. Roberta Crawford, who has iron
overload, wrote THE IRON
ELEPHANT. This book is intended to help the reader look at iron with
new eyes, to see iron in a new
light, and to gain understanding of the proper place of iron in human
health. This book should not be
substituted for the advice and treatment of a physician but rather
should be used as enhancement of the
reader’s understanding of iron . The author and publisher disclaim
responsibility of any adverse effects
resulting from the information presented here.
The following information is based on research and studies done by the
leading doctors and researchers in
the nation/world in the field of hemochromatosis and other iron
loading diseases:
IRON OVERLOAD ALERT
MORE THAN ONE MILLION AMERICANS HAVE UNDETECTED IRON OVERLOAD
WHAT IS IT?
The most common iron overload disease is hemochromatosis, a condition
of defective metabolism for
iron. Not a blood disease! The body lacks the ability to refrain
from absorbing excess iron from a regular
diet. Unlike other nutrients, iron is not excreted.
WHAT DOES IT DO?
Excessive iron injures organs and can result in a variety of
disorders: cancer (especially of the
male/female reproductive organs), heart disease/failure, arthritis,
chronic fatigue, diabetes (especially
"bronze diabetes" where the skin turns bronze or gray in color without
exposure to sunlight),
cirrhosis/cancer of the liver, impotence, sterility, infertility,
early menopause, and early death. The
patient may have any combination of these symptoms. Iron overload
should be diagnosed before overt
symptoms appear–routine testing will accomplish this mission. Iron
overload is lethal unless it is (1)
detected and equally vital, (2) adequately treated.
HOW DO YOU GET IT?
Genes that cause the metabolic defect are recessively inherited, the
most common abnormal gene known.
One out of 8 people carries the single gene (person is a carrier) and
one in 200 carries both genes (person
has hemochromatosis). Day by day the affected individual absorbs too
much iron, which accumulates in
organs and tissue.
Repeated blood transfusions, iron medication and extreme dietary iron
also result in iron damage to the
body.
Some anemias are iron-loading anemias. Low hemoglobin does not mean
low iron!
HOW DO YOU FIND OUT?
Measure SI (serum iron) and TIBC (Total Iron Binding Capacity)
TESTING
Mathematically divide TIBC into SI
Normal value 12-50%
Measure serum ferritin. Normal value: 5-150
(Labs vary. Most set normal limits too high)
If you test high: begin treatment
If you test low: you must search for
(1) chronic internal blood loss (ulcers?)
(2) tumor
(3) infection
Cancer cells and bacteria require iron for growth. These cells remove
iron from circulation and can
result in low saturation. At the same time ferritin (storage iron)
may spike, indicating cancer or
infection.
ALTERNATIVE TO LIVER BIOPSY
Treatment confirms the diagnosis! If a liver biopsy is performed, the
tissue must be properly stained to
…
read more »