posted 12/06/02
Iron overload has been implicated as a
possible source of increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.
An increasing number of people in modern industrialized societies
are iron replete, rather than iron deficient, and iron overload has been
implicated as a possible source of increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk,
report researchers in the new issue of the American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition.
Researchers examined data on reproductive age
women from the third US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES
III), including the relationship between race-ethnicity, iron status, and CVD
risk factors.
The participants included 1,178 white, 1,093
African-American, and 1,075 Mexican-American women aged 20 to 49 years who were
subdivided into low, medium, or high iron status categories according to their
serum ferritin concentrations, a measure of iron stores in the body.
Within each racial group, most indicators of CVD
risk increased with serum ferritin status. For example, triglycerides and total
cholesterol concentrations were higher, and HDL cholesterol concentrations were
lower among subjects with the highest serum ferritin values.
Mexican-American women had significantly higher
concentrations of triglycerides and glucose and lower HDL concentrations than
whites and African-Americans, even though their iron stores were lower than the
other two racial groups.
The study authors suggested that future studies
should address issues of racial differences in response to iron repletion and/or
iron deficiency as risk factors for chronic disease.
Source: Diabetes In Control Dot Com.
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