By Joseph Mercola, D.O.

I recently had a patient visit me from Ohio with a remarkable story that needs to be shared, as it will likely save a number of people's lives.

This person is a 53-year-old healthy male who had absolutely no symptoms. He was the picture of health and from looking at him you would never believe he had any health problems. However, later we wound find out that he was rusting on the inside and had massive amounts of free radical damage.

Through a routine physical examination, his local traditional doctor found that he had elevated liver enzymes. So a hepatitis panel was drawn and he was found to have hepatitis C. He was not content with the traditional recommendations of going on Interferon as a treatment, so he visited my Web site and learned that high iron levels are frequently a major factor in most cases of hepatitis. This is where the story gets interesting.

He asked the doctors to check his iron level, but they basically laughed at him and refused until he persisted. The doctors ran a serum iron level and that came back only on the high side of normal. However, he had read my article on how to properly diagnose iron overload so he further insisted that they run the correct test to screen for iron overload, which was a serum ferritin level. This came back elevated, but they still refused to consider that this was contributing to his problem.

It's not bad enough to be ignorant, which the vast majority of traditional medical doctors are, but they don't have a clue about the real cause of disease. Instead, they focus their energy on diagnosing symptoms and then learning all about Band-Aid drug and surgical solutions.

The factor that annoys me more and more is that most of them compound their ignorance with arrogance. This is a potentially lethal combination for the patient. The doctors refuse to consider any other options outside of those their limited perspective allows them to see.

That is exactly what happened here, and if this person had relied on and trusted their recommendations he would likely be dead in a few short years with the "convenient" diagnosis of hepatitis C, rather than the correct diagnosis of death due to doctor ignorance.

Doctors are the leading cause of death in this country because of their documented mistakes, but believe me, that is only the tiniest tip of the iceberg. They are responsible for far more deaths from their ignorance of basic concepts. Iron overload is certainly one of them, but a lack of appreciation of the influence of insulin on health is another.

When I finally drew this man's ferritin level in my office it was 1000--the second highest I have ever seen. A good number is 50. Anything above 100 should be treated, and anything above 300 to 400 is normally considered to be a problem by traditional doctors. So let me provide further expansion on the relationship between hepatitis C and iron toxicity.

First it is important to gain some perspective on hepatitis C. One study on the costs of hepatitis C provides a proper perspective, which I list below. You can also review the CDC's hepatitis C information for further information.

Cost & Incidence of Hepatitis C Infection

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) cost the United States about $5.46 billion in 1997. The estimate puts the cost of HCV on par with the national costs of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis, two other chronic disorders.

The hepatitis C virus causes inflammation of the liver and is the most common chronic blood-borne infection in the United States. The virus can be spread by sex with an infected person, transfusion of infected blood or contaminated needles. HCV is the most common cause of liver transplantation in the United States, the study notes.

The investigators, from the University of California at Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, believe that the cost of HCV infection justifies requests for increased funding to expand efforts directed at prevention, screening, treatment and research.

Although HCV infection is not as costly as HIV infection, which in 1992 was estimated to cost $30 billion, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that:

HCV-related mortality could triple within the next 10 to 20 years.

According to the report, HCV infection that results in chronic liver disease accounts for about 92 percent of the costs while infection that leads to primary liver cancer accounts for the remaining eight percent of costs.

How to Properly Diagnose Iron Overload

Iron overload, or hemochromatosis, is actually the most common inherited disease. You can find out all the technical details from reading my article on how to diagnose iron overload.

Iron has been known to be associated with infection for 30 years.[1] [2] [3] It appears that iron chelators have great potential to become an important tool for fighting bacterial and viral infections.[4] When excess iron is present, the body's normal antibacterial mechanisms become severely compromised.[5] [6] [7]

I am certain that high iron levels are what contributed to this person coming down with hepatitis C. Was the solution for him interferon? Absolutely not. The interferon itself may have killed him. It in no way, shape or form addressed the problem of excess iron, which was causing severe damage in his liver and creating massive amounts of free radicals.

Treatment for Iron Toxicity

If you were to listen to traditional medicine the only solution for iron overload is to donate a pint of blood every two weeks. This is not a very effective solution and may require many years before it works as up to 50 therapeutic phlebotomies may be necessary.

Measuring iron levels is a very important part of optimizing your health. However, simply measuring serum iron, as I said earlier, is a poor way to do this. Frequently the serum iron will be normal. The most useful of the indirect measures of iron status in the body is through a measure of the serum ferritin level in conjunction with a total iron binding level.

If you find elevated serum ferritin levels, you do not have to perform therapeutic phlebotomies. If you find that your iron levels are elevated the best way to reduce it is to donate your blood.

References:

[1] Weinberg ED. Role of iron in host-parasite interactions. J Infect Dis. 1971 Oct;124(4):401-10

[2] Weinberg ED. Iron and susceptibility to infectious disease. Science. 1974 May 31;184(140):952-6

[3] Weinberg ED. Roles of metallic ions in host-parasite interactions. Bacteriol Rev. 1966 Mar;30(1):136-51

[4] Marx JJ. Iron and infection: competition between host and microbes for a precious element. Best Pract Res Clin Haematol. 2002 Jun;15(2):411-26.

[5] Ward CG, Bullen JJ, Rogers HJ. Iron and infection: new developments and their implications. J Trauma. 1996 Aug;41(2):356-64.

[6] Bullen JJ. The significance of iron in infection. Rev Infect Dis. 1981 Nov-Dec;3(6):1127-38

[7] Wooldridge KG, Williams PH. Iron uptake mechanisms of pathogenic bacteria. FEMS Microbiol Rev. 1993 Nov;12(4):325-48.

[8] Pradines B, Rolain JM, Ramiandrasoa F, et al. Iron chelators as antimalarial agents: in vitro activity of dicatecholate against Plasmodium falciparum. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2002 Aug;50(2):177-87.

[9] Mintzer CL, Deloron P, Rice-Ficht A, et al. Reduced parasitemia observed with erythrocytes containing inositol hexaphosphate. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1988 Mar;32(3):391-4.