Introduction: Iron, the Secret Killer

Iron in our food and in our bodies is a secret killer and may be among the greatest causes of ill health.

It's a secret because

hardly anyone knows what their iron levels are, a critically important piece of information

there are no symptoms from excess iron alone; the only symptoms are from the disease, such as cancer or a heart attack, that iron causes

the fact that excess iron causes disease, aging, and cognitive decline – the breakdown of the brain – is known to very few, including most doctors.

All forms of life, humans included, require nutrients from their food and their environments in order to live, to grow, and to reproduce. Without them, illness or death result. We need protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals.

Among the minerals, we need iron – the same iron used to make steel.

All living things use iron as a critical element in biological systems. Its ability to readily react with other elements, the same chemical reaction involved in rust, means that living organisms use it for important functions such as carrying oxygen in the blood and in energy production.

When humans don't get enough iron from their food, they can become ill, a prominent illness being iron-deficiency anemia. In this disorder, a lack of iron means that the body cannot make enough hemoglobin, the crucial component of red blood cells that carries oxygen. Iron-deficiency anemia can cause fatigue, shortness of breath, and in children, can stunt growth and development.

In a natural environment, the environment that humans evolved in, dietary iron was a scarce resource, and that scarcity as well as the grave consequences of iron deficiency means that we have evolved to grab and hold on to iron. When we eat food that contains iron, we absorb it into the body where it's used for vital biological processes. Then, in most cases, we never let go of it.

Iron accumulates as we age

Humans have no controlled way of getting rid of iron from their bodies. If we have an excessive amount, certain hormones cause a decrease in the absorption of iron from food, but the body cannot actively remove it.

The result is that as we get older, iron accumulates in our bodies, often to levels that damage health.

In the developed world, humans no longer live in an environment in which iron is scarce. In fact, iron is difficult to avoid, since in many countries – like the U.S. – iron is required by law to be added to food such as flour, corn meal, and rice.

Our biology, evolved in an iron-scarce environment, can now work against us in our new, iron-rich environment.

The chemical quality that makes iron essential for living things, its ease of reaction, also makes it dangerous. Iron is a potent pro-oxidant, and can react with biological structures, such as proteins and cell membranes, and damage them. Damage accumulates, causing aging and disease.

Iron, when accumulated in excess, as it is in many, maybe even the majority, of people in the Western world, may be one of the most important causes of aging and disease.

If iron is a major cause of aging and disease, why don't we hear more about it? Much of the research on iron and disease is relatively recent, so this partly explains why this isn't more widely known. Doctors and scientists also have favored other theories of disease, such as cholesterol being the cause of heart disease, and they won't easily give up on these theories. As the physicist Max Planck said, “Science advances one funeral at a time.”

Another reason for the lack of diffusion of this knowledge as it concerns aging is that many people, including many scientists and other educated people, think of aging as just something that happens and that little can be done about.

Our culture has promoted iron as a source of strength and vitality, and this may be another reason for the under-recognition of iron in aging and disease. Many people pop iron supplements in the belief that it's good for them. Little consideration has been given to the dangers of excess iron.

A list of conditions and diseases that iron causes or exacerbates includes:

cancer

heart disease

type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome

obesity

hypertension

aging

sarcopenia (muscle wasting)

osteoporosis

Alzheimer's disease

Parkinson's disease

liver disease

kidney disease

infections

macular degeneration (a cause of blindness)

gout

This book will show that excess iron is a major cause of aging and disease, and that many or even most adults have far too much iron in their bodies. This information will be presented as non-technically as possible, but scientific citations are provided.

I'll also tell you what you can do about excess iron: how to avoid it, and how to get rid of it if you have it.

This book could save you from a world of pain and suffering from diseases that are caused by too much iron. It could also help you slow the aging process, so that you can live many more years, free of illness, than you would otherwise.