Dr. Len, Our 22 year old son has seen an increase in his iron count from 71 to 131 to 172 in three years. His doctor says he may have juvenile hemachromotosis and the normal range is 50-150. What natural regimens do you recommend for people with iron blood disurders? Does juicing help? By the way, he drinks three 10 oz glasses of OJ each day and takes 500 mg of Vitamin C. Should he stop the C and OJ? What can he do to reduce the amount of iron in his blood? Thank you, Brad
I wish I had more advise for your condition, but I honestly haven't seen a lot of that in my practice, so for me to comment on it without further investigating more about the cause and affects would me ill advised....I know when to say, "I don't know" but I will try and gather more info.
What I do know is that traditional medicine encourages men to have monthly blood donations to help reduce the iron, but i am not so sure that is the best advise. I do know that it is a huge problem and I can't think of why anyone would stop or cut back on their vitamin C.
Hopefully I can find the time to investigate this subject further, if you have a question to run by me regarding some of the adivse you recieve and want to bounce it off me --- please feel free to send in your question.
I have read that you should not take Vitamin C and over the counter multis if you have iron overload because it causes more iron absorbtion and that the Vitamin C will store in the heart muscle.
I wish I could give you a rock solid answer, but I can't...but I will say that Vitamin C....the WHole Vitamin C as it refers to iron is completely different to what ascoribic acid is.
Most vitamin companies like to tell everyone that ascorbic acid is vitamin C...but it isn't...it is only one component...much like the fact that there are different forms of vitamin E....and that your body needs all of them....NOT just tocopherol.
the same is true when it comes to vitamin C...the body needs the whole complex...NOT just ascorbic acid....I say all of that, because I have a hunch that the people who are saying vitamin C is bad for them or there use....are talking about ascorbic acid.....NOT the true form of Vitamin C.
I hope that helps....if you are worried about iron levels and vitamin C....I probably wouldn't worry if it is true/whole vitamin C.
