3 ms·

We accumulate iron as we age, and the accumulation correlates with mortality. Women's mortality starts to match men's as they progress on menopause. The theory

by fwungy 4y ago

We accumulate iron as we age, and the accumulation correlates with mortality. Women's mortality starts to match men's as they progress on menopause. The theory on that is that their iron markers go up when they stop menstruation. This is also probably why blood donors have better health and longer lifespans, even when you account for the better starting health of the blood donor cohort.

pacaro 4y ago
One of my siblings has hereditary hemochromatosis, so their body retains far more iron than it should. This is not fun. Careful diet helps slow the buildup, but the only effective treatment is blood letting
- clsec 4y ago
  Since you said one of your siblings has it, I assume you are half siblings? I have hereditary hemochromatosis, and since my sisters and I have different mothers, I am the only one in my family to have it. It takes two parents who carry the gene. Anyway, yes, bloodletting (properly called phlebotomy) is really the only way to deal with it. The first 3 years after my diagnosis my hematologist and I tried out quite a few things to help control it, including diet modifications and different time intervals between phlebotomies. We ended up settling on phlebo every 6 weeks and eat whatever I want.
  - pacaro 4y ago
    The variant in question is autosomal recessive, so my sibling has two copies of the genes and I got lucky and have one
  - dennis_jeeves1 4y ago
    Regarding diet: a carnivore diet helps. This is counter intuitive because red meat is supposed to contain a lot of iron. I will leave it at that and I will let you research. Tip look at: Shawn Baker's videos
- bolangi 4y ago
  I'll just emphasize here that because the body has no biochemical mechanism to excrete iron, one should be careful not to overuse iron supplements. As an aside, though we usually deride traditional bloodletting, I've recently learned of two conditions bloodletting / blood donation is a useful treatment for: high blood iron level, and high blood viscosity.
tcj_phx 4y ago
> Women's mortality starts to match men's as they progress on menopause. Doctors used to prescribe women horse-derived estrogen (PREMARIN - made from PREgnant MARes' urIN) on the mistaken belief that women were deficient in estrogen after their cycles stopped. "Prescription horse piss" doesn't sell very well to people who don't necessarily trust their doctors, so the medical industry mostly switched to selling a synthetic bio-identical estrogen to treat women's supposed "estrogen deficiency". But really it's the loss of a monthly Progesterone surge, from the post-ovulation luteal phase of the cycle, that's behind women's health advantages over men. When ovulation stops, women's death rates rapidly increases to match men's rates. Supplemental progesterone can be taken transdermally or via injections. Most of the progesterone in a pill is lost to the first-pass metabolism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_pass_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_pass_effect

by fwungy 4y ago

pacaro 4y ago

One of my siblings has hereditary hemochromatosis, so their body retains far more iron than it should. This is not fun. Careful diet helps slow the buildup, but the only effective treatment is blood letting

clsec 4y ago
Since you said one of your siblings has it, I assume you are half siblings? I have hereditary hemochromatosis, and since my sisters and I have different mothers, I am the only one in my family to have it. It takes two parents who carry the gene. Anyway, yes, bloodletting (properly called phlebotomy) is really the only way to deal with it. The first 3 years after my diagnosis my hematologist and I tried out quite a few things to help control it, including diet modifications and different time intervals between phlebotomies. We ended up settling on phlebo every 6 weeks and eat whatever I want.
- pacaro 4y ago
  The variant in question is autosomal recessive, so my sibling has two copies of the genes and I got lucky and have one
- dennis_jeeves1 4y ago
  Regarding diet: a carnivore diet helps. This is counter intuitive because red meat is supposed to contain a lot of iron. I will leave it at that and I will let you research. Tip look at: Shawn Baker's videos
bolangi 4y ago
I'll just emphasize here that because the body has no biochemical mechanism to excrete iron, one should be careful not to overuse iron supplements. As an aside, though we usually deride traditional bloodletting, I've recently learned of two conditions bloodletting / blood donation is a useful treatment for: high blood iron level, and high blood viscosity.

tcj_phx 4y ago

> Women's mortality starts to match men's as they progress on menopause. Doctors used to prescribe women horse-derived estrogen (PREMARIN - made from PREgnant MARes' urIN) on the mistaken belief that women were deficient in estrogen after their cycles stopped. "Prescription horse piss" doesn't sell very well to people who don't necessarily trust their doctors, so the medical industry mostly switched to selling a synthetic bio-identical estrogen to treat women's supposed "estrogen deficiency". But really it's the loss of a monthly Progesterone surge, from the post-ovulation luteal phase of the cycle, that's behind women's health advantages over men. When ovulation stops, women's death rates rapidly increases to match men's rates. Supplemental progesterone can be taken transdermally or via injections. Most of the progesterone in a pill is lost to the first-pass metabolism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_pass_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_pass_effect