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Obesity is usually blamed for type 2 or adult onset diabetes, but it isn't the only cause and a possible risk factor you may not have heard about is excess iron in the body. Obesity is usually blamed for type 2 or adult onset diabetes, but it isn't the only cause and a possible risk factor you may not have heard about is excess iron in the body. It is known that people with the genetic disorder haemochromatosis have a higher incidence of type 2 diabetes. People with haemochromatosis absorb too much iron, which is then deposited in various organs. But people can have excess iron on board without haemochromatosis - do they too have a diabetes risk? A 10 year study of 32,000 healthy women in the US compared those who developed diabetes with similar women in the group who didn't, and measured their iron stores. The results showed that the higher their iron stores, the higher the risk of type 2 diabetes - about two and a half times greater at the highest measures, and that was allowing for other factors, including whether the women were menstruating. There was no difference in iron supplement use, but women with diabetes tended to have a higher intake of heme iron: heme iron is more rapidly absorbed from your food and is high in oysters, liver and beef. So if this finding is real, it could be ironed back to lifestyle.
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