Author Topic: Haemochromatosis - and the importance of a full blood test.  (Read 8656 times)

fighting_the_tide

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Haemochromatosis - and the importance of a full blood test.
« on: October 26, 2013, 10:02:41 AM »
I know I've utilised the UK variant of spelling on this word - but just to make people aware...

It is pretty much the opposite of anaemia - where instead of having too little iron in the blood - I have this condition which has been confirmed genetically as well has having high iron levels.

However, it is possible to get misdiagnosed with other things along the line of trying to get sorted - and awareness is relatively minimal that not as many doctors know about it as they should.

It has multiple symptoms - depression/mood swings/irritability are just a few - so it's possible that I am likely to be affected up and down by this over the years - and there are other links (diabetes/arthritis/cardiomyopathy) - which could suggest that iron is a key component of the bodily functions - Had I been an alcohol abuser it could have been made much worse (cirrhosis can develop if not treated even in people who do not drink).

Here is a link to the symptoms page of the UK based site regarding the condition.

http://www.haemochromatosis.org.uk/pages/symptoms.html

It may offer an eye opener for some with depression to get a full blood test done so there can be any potential highs/lows investigated further.

I was on and off (in and out of work too) - with depression through most of 2012, before this was considered at the start of 2013, confirmed by mid-June. It's not impossible that some here could have underlying conditions that are in the genetics as well as other diagnosable conditions - which is likely to affect the levels/frequency of depression - but it's worth getting checked out for.