Is Ray Peats Iron Overload Worries A Lil Extreme?

[yoshiesque]

I been listening to a lecture on iron overload from Chris Kresser which you can find here:

http://chriskresser.com/iron-behaving-badly-the-role-of-iron-overload-in-metabolic-disease

Although I believe he is no where near as smart as Ray Peat, he does have a good take on things and is somewhat close to Ray Peats ideas. He seems to just be interested in whats right for preventing and curing disease.

Anyway, the summary of that video (not a good summary so advise u watch it for more info) is that iron overload occurs due to supplementation and in most cases, people who have it actually have a genetic disorder for it. The genetic disorder is more common than we think, and even carriers have iron overload issues.

Apart from that, he says the body tightly regulates iron and the body excretes any excess iron so its not necessary for most people to limit iron intake from diet. But given that genetic mutations that contribute to iron overload are common, its best to avoid iron supplements and do regular screening for iron.

But its also not a bad idea for everyone to donate blood 1-3x a year to reduce likelihood of excess iron.

Ray peat seems to think we consume a lot of iron through foods, but im starting to think (based on CKs take) that its really just that many people have this genetic mutation and/or take iron supplements for stupid reasons.

Thoughts pplz?

 

[Stilgar]

Good points. But what foods specifically do you feel you would want to include more often that are iron rich that don't have other factors that prevent their overuse?

e.g. liver, very rich in A, don't want to overdo it. muscle meats too regularly is undesirable.

 

[jyb]

I think the worry could be due to iron enriched foods like flour and cereals or to iron supplements when there's no real deficiency. Steak doesn't seem so high, sometimes I have wondered if a steak (what is absorbed from it) is even enough to balance the daily loss of iron. Liver is extra high, but then the body wouldn't absorb all of it due to regulation.

Another point is how he defines overload. Maybe overload is middle of the recommended range. Then that would be more common.

 

[haidut]

I am sure that some iron is good and needed for proper blood oxygenation, but Ray's statement that iron stores tend to increase with age at the expense of copper seem to be backed up pretty well by evidence. In addition, some of the most experimental current treatments for cancer that are competing for clinical trial funding are actually iron chelators. Search PubMed for "iron chelator cancer". The spectrum of effectiveness is pretty broad and covers both solid tumors and hematological malignancies. Since most people with these conditions are older, it supports the idea that iron is in excess in older people or at least the organism cannot control it properly so chelating it has a number of positive effects.
That being said, copper can also be toxic and is implicated in Alzheimers and PD. So, having high blood copper is actually also bad. I don't know if getting it from food like oysters resolves the toxicity problem. If someone has a study to suggest on that I'd be happy to read it.

 

[narouz]

A while back Daimyo posted something interesting along these lines:
http://www.raypeatforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4360

 

[BobbyDukes]

How much iron does your body lose each day? I was under the impression that the problem is in fact because our bodies cling onto iron at any opportunity, hungrily storing it away in our tissues for when we might need it. Because, once upon a time, we shared our bodies with pathogens that took most of our iron. Unfortunately, in today's sterile/cooked world, we don't have such problems with these pathogens, and now we have the exact opposite problem. Our bodies haven't had time to learn how to discard the excess iron, instead of storing it. This is the reason why women who lose blood each month, have a far lower risk of heart attacks than a guy in his 50's who eats iron enriched food each day.

This is a view I have heard from Dr Eades, in 'protein power'. It sounds plausible to me. Why would there even be potential issues with iron, if our bodies are doing the job needed to dispose of the excess?

I'm only writing this because some posters in this thread are indicating that our bodies 'regulate iron'. If that's true, why would somebody get high iron?

 

[jyb]

How much iron does your body lose each day? I was under the impression that the problem is in fact because our bodies cling onto iron at any opportunity, hungrily storing it away in our tissues for when we might need it. Because, once upon a time, we shared our bodies with pathogens that took most of our iron. Unfortunately, in today's sterile/cooked world, we don't have such problems with these pathogens, and now we have the exact opposite problem. Our bodies haven't had time to learn how to discard the excess iron, instead of storing it. This is the reason why women who lose blood each month, have a far lower risk of heart attacks than a guy in his 50's who eats iron enriched food each day.

This is a view I have heard from Dr Eades, in 'protein power'. It sounds plausible to me. Why would there even be potential issues with iron, if our bodies are doing the job needed to dispose of the excess?

I'm only writing this because some posters in this thread are indicating that our bodies 'regulate iron'. If that's true, why would somebody get high iron?

No, the absorption varies a lot depending on stores - from a few percent to > 75% if anaemic (estimates from studies). It doesn't mean you can't go into overload with only 10% though, I don't trust those iron enriched foods. And doctors love to advise taking iron supplements. Some women who lose blood can go anaemic, at the blood donation centre they are extremely more likely to be detected anaemic and refused to give blood. Men who give blood very often also have much higher risk of becoming anaemic after a while. Which is not too surprising because the balance is easily negative with 250mg lost each time (unless you load up on iron enriched foods and iron supplements), so eventually one crosses the border of anaemia.