Posted on 01/05/2021 9:00:32 AM PST by Red Badger
A massive study published in 2020 found evidence that blood iron levels could play a role in influencing how long you live.
It's always important to take longevity studies with a big grain of salt, but the research was impressive in its breadth, covering genetic information from well over 1 million people across three public databases. It also focused on three key measures of ageing: lifespan, years lived free of disease (referred to as healthspan), and making it to an extremely old age (AKA longevity).
Throughout the analysis, 10 key regions of the genome were shown to be related to these measures of long life, as were gene sets linked to how the body metabolises iron.
Put simply, having too much iron in the blood appeared to be linked to an increased risk of dying earlier.
"We are very excited by these findings as they strongly suggest that high levels of iron in the blood reduces our healthy years of life, and keeping these levels in check could prevent age-related damage," said data analyst Paul Timmers, from the University of Edinburgh in the UK.
"We speculate that our findings on iron metabolism might also start to explain why very high levels of iron-rich red meat in the diet has been linked to age-related conditions such as heart disease."
While correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation, the researchers used a statistical technique called Mendelian randomisation to reduce bias and attempt to infer causation in the data.
As the researchers noted, genetics are thought to have around a 10 percent influence on lifespan and healthspan, and that can make it difficult to pick out the genes involved from all the other factors involved (like your smoking or drinking habits). With that in mind, one of the advantages of this new study is its sheer size and scope.
Five of the genetic markers the researchers found had not previously been highlighted as significant at the genome-wide level. Some, including APOE and FOXO3, have been singled out in the past as being important to the ageing process and human health.
"It is clear from the association of age-related diseases and the well-known ageing loci APOE and FOXO3 that we are capturing the human ageing process to some extent," wrote the researchers in their paper published in July 2020.
While we're still in the early stages for investigating this association with iron metabolism, further down the line we could see the development of drugs designed to lower the levels of iron in the blood - which could potentially add extra years to our lives.
Besides genetics, blood iron is mostly controlled by diet and has already been linked to a number of age-related diseases, including Parkinson's and liver disease. It also affects our body's ability to fight off infection as we get older.
We can add this latest study to the growing evidence that 'iron overload', or not being able to break it down properly, can have an influence on how long we're likely to live, as well as how healthy we're likely to be in our later years.
"Our ultimate aim is to discover how ageing is regulated and find ways to increase health during ageing," says Joris Deelen who studies the biology of ageing at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Germany.
"The 10 regions of the genome we have discovered that are linked to lifespan, healthspan, and longevity are all exciting candidates for further studies."
The research has been published in Nature Communications.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17312-3
A version of this article was first published in July 2020.
thanks
i will get a proper iron test
taking 65mg/day iron pill for a condition but want to review that in light of this report
thank you
Haha...menOpausal
My non-scientific guess is that the most typical cause of pathological levels of iron in the human body is drinking water with high iron content.
They added iron to wheat (ie all wheat based products) because women would die due to anemia, since they have reduced iron because of their monthly blood loss. Now men die due to elevated levels of iron because we reciever too much (heart disease..etc). This has been known for quite a while.
No one is arguing that iron levels do not tend to increase over time in healthy individuals, but at some point most people's ability to absorb, nutrients, vitamins and minerals begins to decrease. So we have examples such as rlmorel who had an issue with excessive iron in his system who reached an age where this was no longer an issue.
In most parts of the world iron deficiency is more of a problem than excess iron in people's diets. In our country red meat is available to the point that people eat more than what is required in a balanced diet. With the high protein lunacy that has been the rage for years now, red meat is actually the foundation of many people's diets. Is it a good idea for older folks? Very doubtful. So I think that I understand where you are going with your line of reasoning, and we probably would be allies in most discussions.
I still question the legitimacy of the study that the thread is based on.
“Though rusty water may look and taste unpleasant—and possibly stain sinks and clothing—it is not a health concern. A possible exception is people with hemochromatosis, a rare disorder that causes excess iron accumulation in body organs.”
https://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-eating/food-safety/article/rusty-water
Hemochromatosis affects 1/250 White people and increases to 1/80 in people of Celtic stock. If you're in those categories you should take the genetic test to see if you're affected. Even if insurance doesn't cover it the test is pretty cheap.
I have always found it prudent to be wary of “studies” that seem to have an agenda...
I had problems all my life and no doctor could figure it out. Then my brother 4 years younger started with restless leg and sent to a doctor in Calif. She told him he had hemochromatosis and to call his siblings.
I raced down to the clinic and had my blood tested. Came back 919. My Dr. said must be a mistake: run it again. 2nd Time came back 1040. Yep! I’ve got it. So was sent to a Hemochor. doctor. He said I must get it down to under 50, and keep it there. Said anything over 1000 is organ damage territory. My liver is “fatty” but I think it is full of iron. Now have Bronze diabetes.
severe osteoperosis. One then gets excess iron in the skin. My skin is red and I look like I have been in Florida for a couple of weeks, everyone says I look so healthy.
Giving blood was always out for me. Since I had restless leg at age 12, every night, I didn’t want to give that to anyone. I had colon cancer, tumor on parathyroid, a miscarriage for my only pregnancy. Now the Red Cross won’t even take it. Too high.
I have to reduce citrus intake, red meat intake, no alcohol, watch shell fish none raw. They have determined that I am a heterozygote with two out of the six possible genes.
I think most women who can have children are at risk of iron deficiency, while most men older than 20 are at risk of iron excess. You’re right that some old people are iron deficient.
This is my problem with both the “study” and the journal that published it.
I would suggest your goal be a ferritin of 70 ng/ml instead of 50 ng/ml. There is some evidence that less than 70 ng/ml is iron deficiency. For example, iron absorption is higher if it’s less than 70 ng/ml.
I’d rather eat cows then live to one hundred.
What foods and liquids have the most iron?
Not mentioned in the article, or I missed it.
Thanks.
With age, people have excess iron and excess vitamin A. Excess vitamin A causes bone problems. The government forces milk producers to add vitamin A to milk. Some whole milk doesn’t have added vitamin A and is better. Drinking alcohol reduces vitamin A stores.
Well, it IS Nature, which IIRC, is an EXTREMELY leftist publication.
Meat and chocolate have the most iron. If you don’t eat meat or chocolate, you’re unlikely to have excess iron.
If you remove blood to control iron stores, you can eat all the meat you want.
Grains have phytic acid which reduces iron stores. Tea reduces iron absorption. I think tea drinkers tend to not have excess iron.
That’s a heck of a story. Seems some of us are built in unusual ways. Here’s to what makes you healthy.
...and the reason we have issues absorbing nutrients as we age is because stomach acid drops drastically. In fact, there’s no such thing as ‘high’ stomach acid; all symptoms that cause antacid consumption are caused by LOW stomach acid.
We don’t break down our food when acid is low and therefore nutrients are not absorbed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.