Hemochromatosis Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis and Treatment

What Is Hemochromatosis?

Hemochromatosis makes the body absorb excessive iron from the consumed food. Such abundance of iron then amasses in the organs, particularly pancreas, liver and heart. Excess iron in the respective organ can poison it, leading to critical conditions for instance cirrhosis, heart arrhythmias and cancer.

It is a genetic disease; as majority individuals with hempchromatosis inherit the faulty genes.

What Are The Symptoms Of Hemochromatosis?

Few individuals with the condition never notice any symptoms. However its early symptoms are usually nonspecific, imitating the ones of some other health conditions.

Few common symptoms of hemochromatosis are:

Weakness.
Fatigue.
Joint pain.

In men, the initial symptoms of hemochromatosis are usually from the damage of organ. Such as:

Heart failure.
Impotence.
Libido, loss sex drive.
Diabetes.
Joint pain.

What Causes Hemochromatosis?

Basically, hemochromatosis is divided into two types, both of which have a different cause:

Primary: it is rooted by a defect in the particular genes responsible for controlling the amount of iron we absorb from the consumed food. Moreover, the type is also known as classical or hereditary hemochromatosis.
Secondary: usually, the type consequent due to an underlying health condition or disease that causes excessive iron. Few such conditions and diseases are:

1. Few forms of anemia for example sideroblastic anemia and thalassemias.

2. The rare inherited diseases; aceruloplasminemia and atranferrinemia.

3. Chronic liver diseases.

Few other factors that can trigger secondary hemochromatosis are:

1. Kidney dialysis.

2. Iron injections or pills.

3. Blood transfusions.

Primary hemochromatosis tends to be more common as compared to secondary type of hemochromatosis.

What Are The Risk Factors Of Hemochromatosis?

Certain factors known to raise the risk of hemochromatosis are:

If someone from your first degree relative has hemochromatosis.
If one has inherited 2 mutated genes of HFE- high iron.
If you are a man.

List the potential complications of hemochromatosis:

If hemochromatosis is left untreated, it can lead to some life-threatening complications particularly in the organs wherein the abundance of iron has been stored. Few

complications associated with hemochromatosis are:

Pancreas problems.
Liver problems.
Heart problems.
Reproductive problems.
Color changes in skin.

How Is Hemochromatosis Diagnosed?

Usually, hereditary hemochromatosis is hard to diagnose, as initial symptoms of hemochromatis including fatigue and stiff joints are some common signs that may result due to some other health conditions as well. A number of individuals with hemochromatosis do not notice any symptoms except increased iron levels revealed in their blood test.
Majority instances of hemochromatosis are diagnosed when discovered in the blood tests conducted for some other purpose. All in all, blood tests such as serum transferring saturation and serum ferritin cam help identify iron overload. The doctor can recommend additional tests such as liver function tests, MRI, gene mutation testing and liver biopsy to confirm its diagnosis.