Serum ferritin, better known as iron, is vital to human life because it stimulates the production of hemoglobin, the red blood cell pigment that carries oxygen to our cells. Without it, we couldn’t survive. However, research suggests that iron overload, or hemachromatosis, is a heart risk factor. Hemachromatosis is an acquired or hereditary defect of iron metabolism in which excess iron is deposited in tissues and not available for oxygen transport. Unless iron is lost through menstruation or donating blood, over the years toxic levels can accumulate in your system.
In the early 1980s, Jerome Sullivan, a pathologist, noticed that women who had undergone hysterectomies had increased incidence of heart disease. He suggested that if losing blood protected menstruating women from heart disease, men donating blood might also have similar protection. Sullivan’s findings, published in Lancet in 1981, were years ahead of their time, yet his theories have been accepted only recently.
Women and Iron
Half of American women will die of cardiovascular problems, including heart attack and stroke, yet risk levels among women vary tremendously.
Menstruating women produce estrogen, which is heart protective, and most lose a significant amount of iron in the blood each month. This can add up to 400–500 mg of ferritin iron per year (about equal to two pints of blood).
In contrast, postmenopausal women are four times more likely to have heart attacks. Not only do they lose the protection of regular menstrual iron depletion, their levels of ferritin begin to rise steadily after menopause, more than doubling between 55 and 65, and even more after that.
If you are a postmenopausal woman, please be sure to have your doctor or holistic health practitioner check your iron level on a regular basis. This is as important as maintaining healthy cholesterol, healthy triglycerides and health blood pressure when it comes to ensuring your wellness.
For more information on healthy heart nutrition for woman, visit www.drsinatra.com.
In the early 1980s, Jerome Sullivan, a pathologist, noticed that women who had undergone hysterectomies had increased incidence of heart disease. He suggested that if losing blood protected menstruating women from heart disease, men donating blood might also have similar protection. Sullivan’s findings, published in Lancet in 1981, were years ahead of their time, yet his theories have been accepted only recently.
Women and Iron
Half of American women will die of cardiovascular problems, including heart attack and stroke, yet risk levels among women vary tremendously.
Menstruating women produce estrogen, which is heart protective, and most lose a significant amount of iron in the blood each month. This can add up to 400–500 mg of ferritin iron per year (about equal to two pints of blood).
In contrast, postmenopausal women are four times more likely to have heart attacks. Not only do they lose the protection of regular menstrual iron depletion, their levels of ferritin begin to rise steadily after menopause, more than doubling between 55 and 65, and even more after that.
If you are a postmenopausal woman, please be sure to have your doctor or holistic health practitioner check your iron level on a regular basis. This is as important as maintaining healthy cholesterol, healthy triglycerides and health blood pressure when it comes to ensuring your wellness.
For more information on healthy heart nutrition for woman, visit www.drsinatra.com.
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