Health

Ask the Dentist: Confronting the 'Celtic curse' of the Irish 'iron men'

Irish people are more likely to have a genetic condition that causes the body to absorb too much iron - with implications for our teeth, says Lucy Stock of Gentle Dental Care

Move over Iron Man - one in five Irish people have a genetic disorder called Hereditary Haemochromatosis which causes the body to absorb too much iron.
Move over Iron Man - one in five Irish people have a genetic disorder called Hereditary Haemochromatosis which causes the body to absorb too much iron. Move over Iron Man - one in five Irish people have a genetic disorder called Hereditary Haemochromatosis which causes the body to absorb too much iron.

MOVE over Marvel - we have an entire army of Iron Men walking amongst us in Ireland.

Legend has it that many moons ago, when our diet was poor on the island and low in iron, our bodies adapted so that they could store more iron.

A genetic mutation occurred that might have been an advantage when food was scarce, but it's left a long-term scar known as 'the Celtic curse', with toxic levels of iron building up in our bodies.

One in five Irish people (worldwide it drops to 1 in 300) have been left with the genetic disorder called Hereditary Haemochromatosis. HH causes the body to absorb way too much iron and soaring out of control iron levels damage the heart, liver, and pancreas.

Read More: Haemochromatosis is a ‘Celtic curse' which silently ‘destroys lives'

You are born with the condition, but people generally don't even realise they have the gene until much later in life; symptoms occur usually after 40 years old in women and 60 years old in men.

There is a wide range of HH symptoms like joint aches, stomach pains, tiredness, brain fog, diabetes, loss of sex drive, impotence, skin can turn slate grey, there may be parts of missing body hair especially in the pubic region and left untreated the heart and liver start to fail.

The mouth doesn't escape the ravages of too much iron either. Some of the 'bad' bacteria in the mouth thrive on iron and in an environment where they get plenty, they go into hyperdrive and start eating away the bone around teeth causing rampant gum disease - loose teeth, bleeding gums and bad breath.

And if that's not bad enough some haemochromatosis sufferers must put up with a feeling that their tongue is burning up which tends to drive people slightly mad over time.

Milk and cheese contain lactoferrin, which is a protein that loves to bind to iron so if you have haemochromatosis and love to nibble on cheese then the lactoferrin will couple with the extra iron and dump it on the teeth leaving ferocious black staining and blue-grey gums.

Luckily there's a relatively easy way to treat HH with regular bloodletting, also known as phlebotomy therapy. Once treatment has got underway the symptoms often reduce a bit or subside completely.