By Melissa Tennen, HealthAtoZ writer
Women with high levels of iron in their bodies may have three times
the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, says a study in the Journal of
the American Medical Association.
Someday this could mean doctors can use a simple iron test to help
find out your risk for diabetes.
However, these findings are preliminary, says JoAnn Manson, M.D., a
co- author of the study, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical
School and chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's
Hospital in Boston.
"We're not recommending doctors begin routinely screening for high
levels of iron in order to detect those at high risk," she says. "But
this study adds to mounting evidence that this test can be a very
strong predictor for diabetes."
Researchers took blood samples of 32,800 women at the start of the
study. Ten years later they were asked about their health outcomes,
including whether they had been diagnosed with diabetes. About 700
women had developed type 2 diabetes. When blood was drawn at the
beginning of the study, these women generally had higher levels of
iron.
Women otherwise healthy
"This is a completely independent risk factor for type 2 diabetes,"
Manson says. That means these women did not have the typical factors
that increase chances for the disease. Typically, people who are
obese, have a family history of diabetes, are older than 45, and don't
exercise have higher chances.
Higher levels of iron might increase the number of free radicals,
which are produced as your cells work in your body. Too many free
radicals can damage organs, including the pancreas, which makes
insulin. (Insulin is a hormone that helps the body turn sugar into
energy.) In type 2 diabetes, the body cannot use insulin effectively
and eventually the pancreas is unable to make enough insulin.
Or the higher levels of iron might cause cells to become resistant to
insulin.
"There is no doubt that the results show a strong association between
higher iron stores and later development of diabetes," says Simeon
Margolis, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, endocrinology and
biological chemistry at The Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine in Baltimore. "But this cannot show or prove that higher iron
stores are the cause of diabetes."
Other iron risks possible
Margolis points out researchers are still learning about iron's role
in cardiovascular health. Some researchers think high levels can
damage arteries, contributing to the risk of heart attacks,
atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and strokes. Iron may
interfere with nitric acid, which causes blood vessels to relax. In a
Finnish study, men with the highest amounts of iron in their bodies
had almost three times more heart attacks than men with less.
Iron is an essential mineral. It is a part of oxygen-carrying
hemoglobin in red blood cells and in energy-producing proteins in all
body cells. About 30 percent of iron in the body is in storage,
readily available to replace any that is lost. Too much iron in the
body causes hemosiderosis, which can happen when taking too many iron
supplements. In extreme cases, too much can cause problems with the
heart or immune system. Another condition known as hemochromatosis is
an inherited disorder that causes the body to store too much iron.
There is abundant evidence that damage to the pancreas by
hemochromatosis can cause diabetes.
The iron in red meat is the most easily absorbed by the body.
"People might lower intakes of red meat to less than one serving a
week," Manson says, as an easy way of decreasing the amount of iron in
their diet.
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