Iron increases heart disease
Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) has afflicted man throughout history. Diet and hereditary factors obviously are the key components in developing this condition. Foods high in cholesterol and saturated fats are often implicated in hastening or aggravating heart disease. Many disease states such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension have also been shown to increase a persons chances for CAD. Heart disease usually affects persons over age 60, but can be seen in people who are much younger for various reasons. This disease remains the number one cause of hospitalization and death in the adult population in western society (McCance and Huether, 1994). The purpose of this literature review is to investigate research dealing with the subject of increased serum iron levels and the prevalence of CAD. Medical journals were primarily used for research data due to the nature of the subject and the need for in-depth analysis. While it has the highest prevalence of any disease, women experience only 30-50% of the coronary artery disease incidence and mortality of age-matched men (Meyers, 1996). Many feel that this may be due to the protective effect that estrogen has on the blood vessels of females. There may actually be a direct c
In regard to the above information, the research concludes that it is unlikely that high serum iron or transferrin is the direct cause of CAD. It may be likely though that having a high iron intake may indirectly effect the progression of heart disease by influencing oxidation of cholesterol and lipoproteins. No research concluded that the lower incidence of heart disease in women is based in-part by lower serum iron levels due to menses. In a similar study, 6086 men and 6102 women, who were randomly chosen, were followed for 14 years having frequent serum iron and total iron binding capacity (TIBC) levels drawn. Total Iron Binding Capacity refers to the amount of red bloods cells that are actively bound with iron at any given time. At the end of the study, 739 men and 245 women died from coronary artery disease. It was concluded that there was no relationship between TIBC and coronary mortality observed in men. In women, an inverse although not statistically significant association was found (Reunanen et al, 1995). High iron may indirectly cause damage to coronary arteries due to increased oxidation. Hauenschild et al, (1997) report that the association between nutrition and coronary heart disease is mainly due to t
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Approximate Word count = 833
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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