Hereditary Hemochromatosis : An Essential Mineral

The first disease Moalem discusses, hemochromatosis, is a hereditary disorder that he himself lives with. It causes excess iron buildup throughout the body, damaging “the joints, the major organs, and overall body chemistry” (p. 13). Hemochromatosis can lead to “liver failure, heart failure, diabetes, arthritis, infertility, psychiatric disorders[, ...] cancer” (p. 13) and, in the end, death. Although it is more common in some communities than others, today the low-penetrance disease only manifests in 1 in 200 people.

Hemochromatosis is a deadly disease in which the body believes that it never has enough iron. The body, as a result is that iron is not filtered out through the intestines, it is always entering the body. This iron runs out of places to be stored, and is spread throughout the body. These iron stores eventually end up changing the body and causing damage to major organs and joints. Hemochromatosis can lead to cancer, heart failure, and a plethora of other problems.

Take hemochromatosis, a hereditary condition that causes iron to accumulate in a person's body. A person having hemochromatosis

Iron deficiency anemia, one of the most common types of anemia, is a blood disorder where

Iron Deficiency Anemia affects millions of individuals across the world. This disease strikes many more women than men and has harmful effects on all who suffer from this deficiency that causes oxygen-carrying capacity to decrease. The causes can vary amongst different groups, but the aggravating symptoms remain constant. Much of the research on Iron Deficiency Anemia concentrates on not only the treatment of this disease, but also the prevention of it. To attain a better understanding of how to treat this problem, one must clearly know what Iron Deficiency Anemia means, what causes this disease, the effects of it, and finally how to cure it.

Hemochromic Microcytic Anemia is a type of anemia distinguished by having small red blood cells called microcytes. Additionally these red blood cells are hypochromic, which means paler than usual. Therefore Microcytic hypochromic anemia refers to the condition where the patient's red blood cells are smaller (microcytic) and pale ( hypochromic) than in a normal healthy adult (Hampel, Eliana, & Edward, 2016). This type of anemia is associated with iron deficiency. Iron deficiency is the most common Micronutrient Deficiency(MND) worldwide and leads to hypochromic microcytic anemia, as well as impaired immune and endocrine function (Bailey, West, & Black 2015). Iron deficiency accounts for anemia in 5% of american woman and 2% american men (Wimbley,& Graham, 2011). Depending of the severity and cause of the anemia, treatment will vary. Signs and symptoms of this disease include fatigue, loss of stamina, weakness, dizziness, pallor, and shortness of breath. A case study of this disease will be presented to outline risk factors, clinical manifestations, and goals of treatment using evidence based interventions and practice.

Essentially, iron is what allows almost every form of life to metabolize and function. In fact, our bodies body has several mechanisms that prevent access to iron to pathogens and other infectious bacteria thrive on iron that may harm our bodies known as the acute phase response. The author describes this as he states “the bloodstream is flooded with illness-fighting proteins, and, at the same time, iron is locked away to prevent biological invaders from using it against us (7).” So us readers can take away the idea that iron is crucial for our bodies. So how could potentially accumulating too much iron affect our health? That 's when hemochromatosis comes along. Our bodies assumes that the person is lacking iron in their system so they continually absorb the iron in the intestine. Not only that, don’t forget that bacteria and diseases also rely on iron to grow and accumulate.This can cause cancer cells to grow and spread continuously without stopping if it consumes our iron.

The genetic disease Hemochromatosis, whose mutation is located in the X chromosome of the 6th chromosome pair, is a disease which was developed by humans thousands of years ago through mutations in their genetic code. Hemochromatosis disrupts the way the human body metabolizes iron,

Hereditary hemochromatosis (HHC), the accumulation of iron overload in body tissues. This overload of iron usually occurs because of a genetic predisposition to absorb iron in excess. It can also occur as a complication of hematologic disorders, hepatitis, excessive of iron intake, repeated transfusion therapy and injections of iron dextram. Since there is no physiologic mechanism, the only way for excretion of excess iron is blood loss. Iron is transported in the body via transferrin and stored in ferritin molecules. Once the absorption of iron exceeds its storage capacity in the ferritin molecules, all the excess and unbounded iron promotes free-radical formation in cells, which then results in the peroxidation of membrane lipids and injury of cells. The deposition of iron occurs in many organs, such as, liver, pancreas, and heart.

Hemochromatosis is a genetic disease in which there is too much iron that builds up in your body, this is referred to as an iron overload. Iron is an essential nutrient found in many foods but can be toxic to our bodies if we have to much. “Normally, humans absorb about 8-10% of the iron found in foods that they eat.” People with Hemochromatosis can absorb up to four times more iron than a normal human being. Since our bodies have no natural way to get rid of the extra iron, it gets stored in your body tissue including the liver, heart, pancreas and many other areas of our body can also be infected by this iron overload.

As iron can cause toxicity in the body many mechanisms have developed to regulate the free iron in our systems. All cells within our bodies

The first disease to be discussed by Dr. Moalem is an inherited disease called hemochromatosis. Hemochromatosis is a blood disorder that affects the body’s process of metabolizing iron. Normally, the body is able to notice when a sufficient amount of iron is present in the blood, and reduces iron absorption by the intestines. However, hemochromatosis disrupts the body’s ability to detect when enough iron is in the blood. Thus, the body absorbs iron continuously, even though there is enough. The iron overload can ultimately lead to liver failure, heart failure, diabetes, arthritis, infertility, psychiatric disorders, cancer, and death. Symptoms of hemochromatosis include abnormal heartbeat rhythm and joint pains. It is difficult to diagnose

Iron Storage Disease (ISD) is a serious condition that affects many animals, including rhinoceroses. ISD is only found in browser rhinoceroses (African black, Diceros biacornis, and Sumatran, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) and not in grazers (African white, Ceratotherium simum, and Indian, Rhinoceros unicornis). This disease is also only found in captive animals and is not found in animals in the wild. Iron is an essential trace element and is important in red blood cell formation, oxygen transport, in the production of ATP, and in enzyme systems (Molenaar, 2005). ISD occurs when there is more iron than normal circulating throughout the body, or when it is being deposited within cells (Clauss, 2012). When the hemosiderin, or iron storage molecule,

The micronutrient iron is crucial for life; however, maintenance of iron homoeostasis is critical since its deficiency or excess both leads to a pathological condition. Unlike like other nutrients, the iron homoeostasis is regulated at the level of absorption in the intestine and not via excretion. When the body iron store declines or when there is an increase in demand, the iron homoeostasis is maintained by the increase in absorption and vice versa. The recent biomedical advance has witnessed the hormone produced by liver, hepcidin as a prime regulator of iron homoeostasis by inhibiting iron absorption; however, the regulation of the hepcidin expression is complex and multifactorial. In this review, we explored and compared the recent advances in understanding the regulation of hepcidin expression.

Iron is one of the important minerals that is required for our bodies to function properly. Most of the iron in our body is found in the blood such as haemoglobin, approximately 60 -70% of the human body’s iron is found in the haemoglobin, a protein in the blood that transports oxygen. Iron is also present in muscle tissue and some enzymes. There are two types of iron in the body which are “Heme Iron” from animal products and “Non-Heme Iron” vegetables and