Celtic Curse & Iron Overload

If you or a loved one suffers from hereditary hemochromatosis (HH), you may have experienced the widespread frustration that comes with this condition, frustration that you can't get answers, or treatment, or relief from the damage done by iron overload. One non-conventional medical strategy you might consider is clinical trials. Before you look at how to pursue this option please be advised that it is not for everyone. I think you need a good overall knowledge of human anatomy and biology to navigate this field. Plus some patience: Not all studies will apply to you, for a variety of reasons. The Clinical Trials Site A lot of people don't know that the federal government in America tracks clinical trials online . That link will show you current trials around the world that are related to hemochromatosis. Last time I checked there were 40 of them, with 17 in the United States, as shown here: Here is an example of a trial that is currently recruiting: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifie...

Correction: We recently reported that a  respected group of physicians backs universal testing for hemochromatosis . It seems there may have been some errors in that report because the best reference to universal hemochromatosis testing that I have been able to locate is at the CAP, the College of American Pathologists , not the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP). As far as I can tell the author of the article we referenced had conflated the two entities when citing the American College of Clinical Pathologists. The other error was in thinking that this was a new call for testing for hereditary hemochromatosis. In fact the documentation dates back more than 10 years according to this NCBI citation in its resources for hemochromatosis , not that the age takes away from the recommendation. In fact, the CAP thought that screening with serum transferrin saturation (TS) was the way to go: "Morbidity attributable to hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) is completely preventab...

Hemochromatosis can create and/or exacerbate a lot of problems for your body, including but not limited to diabetes, liver disease, liver cancer, heart disease, and joint/spine problems. The last item, which can produce deep and unrelenting pain, is sometimes overlooked in the general "What is Hemochromatosis?" literature. There may be a good reason for this: Raising awareness of a problem--and hemochromatosis is nothing if not a problem--requires a delicate balance between good news and bad news. I am deeply familiar with the good/bad news balance from my decades of work in computer security awareness. Indeed, my current job title is Security Evangelist, and my tag line is "I bring you good news about Internet security, as well as some bad." (FYI, the Celtic Curse website is something I do in my own time and the views and opinions stated here are mine and not those of my employer.) As an example of this form of evangelism, last week my colleagues and I put up a blo...

Imagine the shock of getting a call from the intensive care unit of your local hospital telling you that your brother has been admitted. The doctor says your brother is delirious and combative and "in the throes of advanced alcoholism." Furthermore, he has cirrhosis of the liver, internal bleeding, and ketoacidosis—a medical emergency in which a shortage of insulin can lead to coma or death—from newly diagnosed diabetes. If you've never thought of your brother as an alcoholic such a call could be both shocking and disturbing. Of course, the story gets even more worrying if your brother turns out not to be an alcoholic. But such is the story told in this excellent Washington Post article about an almost fatal failure to diagnose hemochromatosis. Several things struck me when I read this article, in addition to feeling terrible for Jeff Williams, the subject of the story, and his family, who are now living in the shadow of hemochromatosis. For one thing there is an amazing...