“Celtic curse” hotspots found in Scotland and Ireland with 1 in 54 at risk

5 months ago by noodNinja to c/haemochromatosis

Researchers have mapped the genetic risk of hemochromatosis across the UK and Ireland for the first time, uncovering striking hotspots in north-west Ireland and the Outer Hebrides. In some regions, around one in 60 people carry the high-risk gene variant linked to iron overload. The condition can take decades to surface but may lead to liver cancer and arthritis if untreated.

Lemmy needed a Haemochromatosis community.

givesomefucks 8 points 5 months ago

Just give blood...

Literally, that's the treatment, it's the only way to remove stuff like iron. They even do an iron test Everytime, although they're looking for people under and not over the limit.

And I've never heard "Celtic curse" it's how people survived famine and no access to iron in their food supply. We're just super efficient at absorbing it. And modern diets are too high in iron

Unless, you just give blood. Which again, is the prescribed treatment if you ever test too high.

So just give blood routinely and be comfortably under the limit.

It's the easiest "curse" in the world to manage. Hell, leeches and bloodletting have been around for milenia as common treatments.

For much of recorded history, you'd stumble into proper treatment,. literally, from just bleeding

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noodNinja 2 points 5 months ago

Pretty much sums it up. There are some other treatments researched very recently like synthetic hepcidin and gene therapy to correct the actual mutation. The hepcidin one was a successful human trial in Australia but at the end of it phlebotomy was still decided as the preferred method of treatment. I am waiting for an update on the gene editing treatment. Getting these things to market is a challenge unfortunately.

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corsicanguppy -1 points 5 months ago

Everytime

Not a word, my dude.

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teyrnon 2 points 5 months ago

I may be dumb, which I am, but there does not seem to be a link to an article to describe what this is here, and there is no description in the post. While I did get the gist from the comments, if let me needs this community Opie should post a link to what the fuck it even is thank you very much. Wich I now know to be absorbing iron too effectively to have too much of it because of a low iron diet in the Celtic areas of the far north.

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noodNinja 1 point 5 months ago

Should be fixed. Adding an image replaced the article URL and I didn't notice

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EpicMuch 2 points 5 months ago

My by-blood uncle passed away from this a few years ago

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corsicanguppy 2 points 5 months ago

There must be some genetic resistance. A dear friend whose family immigrated from Scotland now has chronic iron deficiency in our environment. Coincidence, I know, but kinda funny.

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