Hemochromatosis Support Group
Hemochromatosis is a hereditary disease characterized by improper processing by the body of dietary iron which causes iron to accumulate in a number of body tissues, eventually causing organ dysfunction. It is the main iron overload disorder. Hemochromatosis is notorious for having symptoms that are often initially misattributed to other diseases.
Could nano particles found in food be a trigger for Hemochromatosis? A recent study found long term exposure to polystyrene increased iron absorption. There has been some suggestion that the HH genes do not actually cause HH, they just have to be present. Maybe we with the HH genes are just more sensitive to nano particles found in everyday products, meaning they can increase iron absorption much more than those people without the gene.
OK, I'm not being serious even though nano particles which are found in everyday items like polystyrene, food additives, vitamins etc (nano particles of this size are deemed to be safe) do have an effect on iron absorption. From the evidence I'm aware of I'd have to say it was the genes tht cause HH. But it raises an interesting area that should probably be researched further, even if it just shows nano particles could have a greater effect on those of us with HH than those without.
Article here
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120216185408.htm
Study can be found here
http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nnano.2012.3.html
(I've not read it so far)
OK, I'm not being serious even though nano particles which are found in everyday items like polystyrene, food additives, vitamins etc (nano particles of this size are deemed to be safe) do have an effect on iron absorption. From the evidence I'm aware of I'd have to say it was the genes tht cause HH. But it raises an interesting area that should probably be researched further, even if it just shows nano particles could have a greater effect on those of us with HH than those without.
Article here
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120216185408.htm
Study can be found here
http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nnano.2012.3.html
(I've not read it so far)
it was an interesting article thanks.
zzzzzzzzzz
Nano particles are already found in many products (either by design or by chance) which are on shelves in your local supermarket already! We may have been exposed e.g. particles from packaging materials.
I had thought this was few and far between e.g. zinc in sunscreens, silver used as antibacterial in plastics, but now realise they are much more widespread across a broad spectrum of products.
There is a list of products with nanotechnology products (in link below), however that does NOT include nano particles in products by chance e.g. due to manufacturing process used etc. (it relies on self reporting)
http://www.nanotechproject.org/inventories/consumer/
There are many articles on the web on the possible dangers (much of it just scaremongering) but it would be nice if for once we had looked at possible downsides before using a new technology. The downside could be severe as nano particles pass through skin, into organs & even directly into cells easily. Their small size tends to make them more reactive than normal size particles, and have unexpected interactions, as with iron absorption in stomach.
Nanoparticles could be another possible explanation why some people with the HH gene get symptoms while others don't, at least in a section of us with HH gene. Maybe it could "sensitise" some of us ...... a bit like people become sensitised to allergy's. (It's unclear to me if the increased iron absorption and "mild" immunostimulation is a permanent or temporary effect)
Further reading
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-nanoparticles-in-food-pose-health-risk
The benefit to us could be that nanotechnology might offer us a way to reduce iron absorption in some new manner.
It must be all those nano particles! ha! ha!