Iron Overload
( Hemochromatosis )

Iron overload, or hemochromatosis, is a disease in which the body stores so much iron that it begins to "rust," with the iron degrading cell membranes in the liver, pancreas, and , heart. Over 1 million people in the United States alone have full-blown iron overload disease, and another 30 million carry a gene that causes a milder form of the condition.

The risk of iron overload disease is highest for people who have close family members who have been diagnosed with the disorder. It also occurs in people who have type 2 diabetes or have had a heart attack, or who have elevated liver enzymes not caused by viral hepatitis. There may be spotting or darkening of the skin. Iron overload is a lifelong condition, but symptoms usually do not begin to appear until about age forty. Men are much more susceptible to this disease than women.

A medical diagnosis of full-blown iron overload disease is usually only made after a needle biopsy of the liver. A blood test for ferritin, however, may show high iron levels that are associated with increased risk for complications even if the liver biopsy itself does not show excessive amounts of iron.

Conventional treatment of iron overload consists of phlebotomy, or the taking of blood at regular intervals. Left untreated, this condition can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer, diabetes, and heart failure. However, if it is detected and corrected early, serious symptoms do-not appear. Even after symptoms appear, treatment can prevent heart attack and liver cancer, and dramatically reverse diabetes caused by the disease. Effective treatment though, requires phlebotomy. For this reason, herbal medicine and other treatments cannot substitute for phlebotomy, although they may accelerate recovery from iron overload when used as supplemental therapies.

Supplements and herbs

• Milk thistle Silymarin gel-caps. Take 120 mg 3 times daily.
  Prevents liver damage; stops iron from promoting atherosclerosis.
  Milk thistle may cause mild diarrhea. If this occurs, decrease the dose or stop taking it.

What else you can do

• To reduce iron intake, limit servings of meat, fish, and poultry to one per day, and do not eat organ meats at all. Heme iron, the kind of iron found in meat, not only contributes to iron overload disease, but also increases the risk of heart attack.
• Consult an alternative health-care practitioner about using chelation therapy to supplement phlebotomy. Note that chelation therapy removes iron from circulation much more slowly than phlebotomy does.
• The principal medical treatment for iron overload is a modern update on the traditional use of leeches-phlebotomy. The standard medical treatment for hemachromatosis is to remove 1/2 to 1 pint (250 to 500 milliliters) of blood every week until iron levels return to normal. People with hemachromatosis typically have 25 grams (25,000 milligrams) of excess iron in their systems. Each phlebotomy session removes approximately 250 milligrams of iron, so about one hundred sessions are typically required.
• Milk thistle (silymarin) is a useful adjunct to phlebotomy and a low-iron diet. It helps the liver to reduce its iron load in a slow, reliable fashion, and helps to prevent fibrosis of the liver. Silymarin should relieve some symptoms within the first two or three days of use.