"Kill Your Self"
Dysmetabolic Iron Overload Syndrome (DIOS)
is characterized by an elevated serum ferritin with a normal transferrin-iron saturation percentage. People with DIOS will likely also have an elevated GGT (liver enzyme) possibly due to a fatty liver. Individuals with DIOS are helped by phlebotomy, diet and exercise. The FeGGT test is helpful in determining the iron status and GGT status. For more information about GGT and the FeGGT test, visit HealtheIron.com
About Overload
Iron overload is an excess (too much) iron in the body. Excess iron in vital organs, even in mild cases of iron overload, increases the risk for liver disease (cirrhosis, cancer), heart attack or heart failure, diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, metabolic syndrome, hypothyroidism, hypogonadism, numerous symptoms and in some cases premature death. Iron mismanagement resulting in overload can accelerate such neurodegenerative diseases as Alzheimer’s, early-onset Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis.
Iron overload can be inherited (genetic) or acquired by receiving numerous blood transfusions, getting iron shots or injections, or consuming high levels of supplemental iron. Some of the genetic disorders that result in iron overload include are hereditary hemochromatosis (all types), African iron overload, sickle cell disease, thalassemia, X-linked sideroblastic anemia, enzyme deficiencies (pyruvate kinase; glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) and very rare protein transport disorders aceruloplasminemia and atransferrinemia. None of these conditions should be confused with polycythemia vera (PV), which is not an iron disorder, but a condition where the bone marrow produces too many blood cells (red, white and platelet). People with PV have abnormally high hemoglobin and are at risk for a stroke and progressing to acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Part of the therapy for PV is phlebotomy.
Symptoms, signs and diseases resulting from too much iron (iron overload):
chronic fatigue
joint pain
abdominal pain
liver disease (cirrhosis, liver cancer)
diabetes mellitus
irregular heart rhythm
heart attack or heart failure
skin color changes (bronze, ashen-gray green)
loss of period
loss of interest in sex
osteoarthritis
osteoporosis
hair loss
enlarged liver or spleen
impotence
infertility
hypogonadism
hypothyroidism
hypopituitarism
depression
adrenal function problems
early onset neurodegenerative disease
elevated blood sugar
elevated liver enzymes
elevated iron (serum iron, serum ferritin)
The treatment for iron overload is iron reduction therapy. A person's hemoglobin is key in the physician's decision of iron reduction therapy. If the patient's hemoglobin level is sufficient to tolerate blood removal (phlebotomy), the doctor can provide either an order for therapeutic phlebotomies or can recommend that a patient routinely donate blood. When a patient's hemoglobin is too low for phlebotomy, iron reduction will likely require iron-chelation, which is the removal of iron using specific drugs. In some situations the physician may use a combination of these two therapies.
http://www.irondisorders.org/iron-overload