CRISPR Gene Editing Fixes Muscular Dystrophy in Dogs. Are Humans Next?

The powerful gene editing technology CRISPR is one small step closer to treating a human disease.

By ALICE PARK 

August 30, 2018

In a new paper published in Science, researchers led by Eric Olson, professor and chair of molecular biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, reported that he and his team successfully used CRISPR to correct the genetic defect responsible for Duchenne muscular dystrophy in four beagles bred with the disease-causing gene. It’s the first use of CRISPR to treat muscular dystrophy in a large animal. (Previous studies had tested the technology on rodents.) In varying degrees, the genetic therapy halted the muscle degradation associated with the disease.

Duchenne is caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene, which codes for a protein essential for normal muscle function. People born with the disease are often eventually confined to wheelchairs as their muscles continue to weaken, and in the later stages, many rely on ventilators to breathe as their diaphragm muscles stop working. Eventually, they develop heart and respiratory failure.

Olson and his team “fixed” the mutated dystrophin gene in four dogs by splicing out an offending section of the gene using CRISPR. The gene editing technology, discovered in 2012, can cut out sections of DNA at precise locations (and also potentially introduce new DNA as well). In the case of Duchenne, says Olson, simply snipping out a section of the mutated dystrophin gene allows the gene to make enough of the proper protein that muscles need to function.

Olson tried two different methods of injecting the CRISPR molecular scissors. With two dogs he directly injected the CRISPR technology into muscle, while in two other dogs he injected the same CRISPR technology into the bloodstream, so it could travel to more parts of the body and have a broader effect on different types of muscle from the limbs to the heart and diaphragm. Because Duchenne seems to affect the heart and respiratory system muscle preferentially, he also loaded the CRISPR cutting complex onto a molecular vehicle, a cold virus that was modified to seek out and splice DNA in those muscle cells in particular.

“I was frankly exuberant by the results,” says Olson. “It was jaw dropping.”

In the dogs that had received the systemic injections, he found that muscle cells in various parts of their bodies, including the heart and diaphragm, were churning out healthy dystrophin protein at anywhere from 3% to 90% of the normal levels eight weeks after injection. Olson says that muscular dystrophy experts believe that if dystrophin levels in affected people were raised to 15% of normal, it would make a dramatic difference in their lives and their ability to function. The dogs receiving the CRISPR injections directly into their muscle also showed higher levels of dystrophin production, but just in those muscles specifically. Because Duchenne affects deep organs like the heart and respiratory system, Olson says finding a way to deliver CRISPR more widely, without repeated and multiple injections, is preferable.

The idea is that CRISPR would essentially delete the mutation in muscle cells, and return the affected dogs to a nearly normal state. So far, the animals continue to make higher amounts of dystrophin after eight weeks.

The study is the latest in an encouraging string of results in applying CRISPR to treat human disease. Researchers have also successfully used the gene editing technology to splice out HIV from both infected human cells in the laband in living mice and rats, and are close to beginning trials to blood disorders like beta thalassemia and sickle cell anemia. Scientists have even corrected a genetic heart defect in embryos in the lab, which were not allowed to develop further or be implanted for ethical reasons. While serious questions about the safety of CRISPR-based therapies remain — some studies revealed greater than expected side effects from overzealous DNA snipping, for example — both academic and commercial researchers remain committed to investigating CRISPR as a new tool in addressing genetic diseases such as Duchenne.

Olson is encouraged by the results, even if they came from just a few dogs. They provide some reassurance that Duchenne, which is often diagnosed before people start to notice symptoms of muscle weakness, might be halted in its tracks before important skeletal, heart and breathing muscle are damaged beyond saving. A CRISPR-based therapy, he says, may be most effective in treating young people recently diagnosed with the disease, to prevent them from ever experiencing the symptoms of Duchenne.

Even people with more advanced disease might benefit, Olson thinks, as long as there is some muscle left to maintain a certain level of function, whether that’s moving the legs and arms or keeping the heart functioning. “I absolutely believe that whatever stage we intervene with this therapy, it could halt or slow the progression of the disease from that point forward,” he says.

First, however, more studies need to be done in larger animals like dogs. Olson is planning on a longer term study to see how long the CRISPR cells remain in the dogs, and how safe the therapy is.

The hope is that if those animal studies and human trials prove this technique is safe and effective, CRISPR could potentially lead to a cure for Duchenne, Olson says. “We are going for a cure, not a treatment,” he says. “All of the other therapies so far for Duchenne muscular dystrophy have treated the symptoms and consequences of the disease. This is going right at the root cause of the genetic mutation.”

http://time.com/5382101/crispr-muscular-dystrophy-in-dogs/

MUST READ: Excess Iron and Brain Degeneration: The Little-Known Link

Iron gradually builds up in certain cells and tissues over the course of the human life span. Too much iron accelerates mitochondrial decay and inflicts system-wide free radical damage to healthy tissues.1,2 Age-related iron overload is a known contributor to multiple degenerative diseases, including liver fibrosis, heart attack, and cancer.3-8

March 2012

By Kathleen Anderson

Iron gradually builds up in certain cells and tissues over the course of the human life span. Too much iron accelerates mitochondrial decay and inflicts system-wide free radical damage to healthy tissues.1,2 Age-related iron overload is a known contributor to multiple degenerative diseases, including liver fibrosis, heart attack, and cancer.3-8 Iron accumulation is often a consequence of aging. In the laboratory, total iron content has been shown to increase exponentially as cells age, resulting in 10-fold higher levels of iron compared to young cells.3 Sadly, owing to physician and patient ignorance, the significant dangers posed by excess iron in the body remain little known and often overlooked. As a result, most maturing individuals are not taking aggressive measures to ensure ideal total-body iron status—and most doctors do not properly test for it. In this article, you will discover the results of a groundbreaking UCLA study published late last year conclusively linking excess iron accumulation in brain tissue to neurodegenerative brain disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.9,10 You will also find a multi-pronged approach to prevent and even reverse iron-induced tissue damage in the brain, liver, and kidneys using nutrients Life Extension® members already take, such as quercetin,curcumin, lipoic acid, and green tea. Brain Iron Levels, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Cognitive Decline Dr. George Bartzokis is a widely published researcher and professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. Much of his work has been devoted to understanding the role that iron plays in human brain development, function, and aging, with a particular emphasis on the link between iron and neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. From that work, Bartzokis and his colleagues have generated a detailed picture of iron metabolism across the human life span. Bartzokis’ team showed that they could accurately measure iron levels in living humans’ brains by using a highly specialized non-invasive form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).11 Applying this technique to groups of people with and without Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers quickly discovered significantly larger amounts of stored iron in certain brain regions in those with Alzheimer’s than in control subjects.9,12 Similar findings held true in Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease sufferers as well.10,13 Those discoveries raised the intriguing question of whether the iron was a potential contributor to the neurodegenerative disease process, or whether it was a byproduct of the disease itself. Further work revealed the definitive answer. First, the brain scan studies showed that increased iron levels were present at the earliest onset of disease, indicating that they were not a consequence but rather a potential cause of brain degeneration.13 Second, even in apparently healthy individuals, iron levels rise steadily with age in some of the very brain regions affected by Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases.14 Those regions include the basal ganglia, which contain the highest levels of iron in the brain.13 Third, the researchers found that people with the highest brain iron accumulations had the earliest age at onset of the degenerative diseases.15 By now it was clear that the presence of excessive iron in affected brain areas was somehow directly involved in triggering the neurodegenerative disease processes. Iron was fast emerging as a potentially modifiable age-related risk factor for these conditions.15 But it wasn’t only neurodegenerative diseases for which excessive iron accumulation was a risk. The UCLA researchers studied a group of healthy older adults, comparing memory and information-processing speed according to their brain iron levels. Those with the highest accumulations of iron in their brain grey matter had the poorest performance, especially among men.16 Bartzokis’ team was struck by several other gender differences apparent in these diseases: men are more likely to develop these conditions at earlier ages than women, and women have significantly lower iron levels in five vital brain regions than men of similar ages.17 A Breakthrough Study These findings led to a compelling study published in late 2011 demonstrating for the first time that limiting your body’s lifetime exposure to iron can in turn limit your risk of neurodegenerative brain disorders. It began with the observation that women not only have lower brain iron levels in their later years, they also have lower iron levels throughout their bodies for most of their lives. It has long been known among physicians that this difference arises because women lose iron during their reproductive years through menstruation. Could that steady, low-level loss of iron be an effective means by which women inadvertently but effectively limit their lifetime exposure to iron, thereby protecting themselves from early-onset brain disorders? Dr. Todd A. Tishler, a protégé of Dr. Bartzokis at UCLA, discovered a way to test that hypothesis. Tishler, Bartzokis, and colleagues studied brain scan images of 39 postmenopausal women, of whom 15 had undergone a hysterectomy prior to menopause.18 Those women obviously had stopped menstruating prior to menopause, prematurely ending their bodies’ ability to lose iron on a regular basis. The other women had experienced regular periods until menopause. For comparison, the researchers included brain scans of 54 men of similar ages. Not surprisingly, the men’s brains had higher iron levels than those of women who had reached menopause naturally, without hysterectomy. But in a compelling validation of Tishler’s hypothesis, the brains of the women with hysterectomies exhibited iron levels not only higher than normal menopausal women but identical to levels in male subjects.18 The UCLA study demonstrated that lifelong menstruation grants most mature women beneficially lower brain iron levels and affords significant protection against early onset of neurodegenerative brain disorders. It also underscores the critical need for humans to aggressively limit lifetime exposure to iron and therebysubstantially lower their risk of neurodegenerative brain disorders and cognitive decline. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: HOW EXCESS IRON INFLICTS SYSTEM-WIDE DAMAGE The interplay between dietary iron intake and total health is more complex than most people grasp. Here’s why: iron-rich red blood cells typically die after about 90 days. Much of the iron contained in their hemoglobin molecules is recycled to generate new hemoglobin and new red blood cells. (The same is true of the iron in muscle cells.) The problem? A significant amount of this iron is not recycled. Instead, it accumulates in cellular repositories called lysosomes. Our bodies use iron because it is a powerful catalyst, speeding chemical reactions essential to life. But it is precisely that catalytic function that makes iron so dangerous in excess. “Useful” iron in your body is bound to carrier proteins and enzyme systems that isolate it from bodily tissues, and that direct its catalytic activities to where they are needed.72 But iron in its unbound state is free to react unselectively with a variety of chemical compounds.15 Unbound iron from age-related overload reacts volatilely with water and oxygen to produce highly reactive oxygen species or free radicals.19,41,42 These in turn damage cell membranes, DNA, mitochondria, and multiple tissues and organs.4,73 Natural Ways to Limit Iron-Induced Tissue Damage There are several ways you can limit the damaging effects of excessive iron in your body. The most obvious is to monitor how much iron you ingest. Experts now typically recommend that older adults limit their intake of red meat, which is our major natural dietary source of iron. You should also choose your vitamin and mineral supplements carefully. Unless you have iron-deficiency anemia, you are unlikely to benefit from extra supplemental iron, and it is absent from properly formulated dietary supplements. But what can you do about the iron your body has already absorbed and has now accumulated in potentially dangerous ways in your tissues? There are two main approaches you should take. The first is to supplement with nutrients that can bind up, or chelate the iron in molecular complexes. Chelation isolates iron from tissues and limits its ability to catalyze the oxidant reactions that damage them. Chelation also hastens excretion of excess iron from your body.19 Ultimately, that means that chelation limits your body’s exposure to the destructive effects of iron accumulations. The second approach to minimizing long-term iron damage is to optimize your antioxidant regimen. That can help you prevent any further damage by iron’s catalytic reactions with oxygen. We’ll now examine the compelling data for nutrients that can protect your body from excess iron accumulations by chelating iron, enhancing your antioxidant defenses—or both. THE LINK BETWEEN EXCESS IRON AND BRAIN DEGENERATION Accumulation of iron in bodily tissues is an inevitable consequence of aging. Pathologic age-related iron overload damages cells and tissues and is a causative factor in numerous degenerative diseases, including liver fibrosis,cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Few doctors inform their patients of the dangers of high total-body iron distributions, nor do they test for total-body iron status. Excessive iron accumulations are found in affected brain areas of people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases. Even in normal older adults, people with higher brain iron accumulations perform more poorly on cognitive tests than do those with lower brain iron concentrations. A breakthrough UCLA study demonstrates that limiting lifetime exposure to iron can reduce brain iron accumulations. A number of nutrients can help reduce your body’s total exposure to iron through chelation (binding to free iron atoms) and antioxidant activity, including quercetin, curcumin, R-lipoic acid, and silymarin. Quercetin Flavonoids are naturally occurring plant molecules that offer both powerful antioxidant protection and the ability to bind to free iron atoms.19-21 Quercetin, a flavonoid found in berries and other plants, chelates iron atoms as powerfully as the prescription drugs used in managing severe cases of iron overdose.22,23Quercetin’s antioxidant effects are likely to be closely related to its strong iron-chelating capacity, and account for its ability to prevent the DNA strand damage that precedes cancer development.24,25 Studies of quercetin reveal that it can prevent the kidney damage associated with acute iron overload from muscle breakdown, one of the leading causes of acute renal failure.26 Similarly, liver injury from long-term exposure to iron is prevented in laboratory animals supplemented with quercetin.27,28 Quercetin is included in properly formulated resveratrol supplements since it boosts resveratrol’s beneficial effects in the body. Cranberry and Pomegranate Dark-colored and red fruits are known to have many health benefits, in large part because of their high content of polyphenols. Cranberry and pomegranate extracts rich in polyphenols have now been shown to have potent iron-chelating capabilities, in some cases completely suppressing iron-catalyzed oxidant reactions.22,29 We’ve long known that cranberry juice and extracts are active in preventing urinary tract infections with some of the most common pathological organisms. The traditional view has been that the extracts’ antioxidant and anti-adhesive powers are the primary mechanisms.30 New evidence shows that another way cranberry extracts work is by depriving infecting bacteria of the iron they need for survival through chelation.30,31 Green Tea Extract After water, tea is the most commonly-consumed beverage in the world.32 Green, unfermented tea leaves have numerous health benefits, chiefly attributable to their content of a polyphenol molecule called epigallocatechin-3-gallate, or EGCG.32 EGCG is a well-known antioxidant.33 In recent years, it was shown to powerfully chelate unbound iron and protect vulnerable tissues.34,35 Green tea extracts rich in EGCG bind to iron, and scientists have proposed their use as an alternative or adjunct to commercial iron chelators, which, while effective, may come with negative side effects.36,37 Such drugs are used to treat thalassemia, a condition which when severe enough, can cause massive iron accumulations as the result of frequent blood transfusions. EGCG from green tea has now been used safely and effectively to bind and remove iron from the blood of individuals with thalassemia.37,38 And in studies of animals deliberately overloaded with iron to mimic aging, green tea extracts are able to bind free iron and reduce iron-related tissue oxidation in brain and liver tissue.36,39,40 Unlike many drugs and nutrients, EGCG readily crosses the blood-brain barrier.41,42 This allows it to capture and isolate iron from the brain regions affected in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases.43 In contrast to many current drug therapies, which can only modify symptoms in these tragic conditions, iron chelation by EGCG rich green tea extract offers the potential to prevent and reverse the progression of the disease process itself.44-46 SHOULD YOU REALLY BE TAKING IRON? Curcumin Despite the dangers posed by excessive iron accumulation, aging individuals still require sufficient iron intake for optimal health. In order to know whether you are getting adequate (or excessive) amounts of iron in your diet, you need to know your total-body iron status. This requires a series of blood tests beyond those normally administered to determine whether you suffer from anemia. For a comprehensive snapshot of your current total-body iron status, ask your doctor to include serum ferritin and total iron-binding capacity in addition to the hemoglobin and hematocrit measured in a typical blood count. Your doctor may order additional tests based on these results. If you don’t have iron deficiency or anemia, taking supplemental iron is not advisable and may contribute to onset of the degenerative disorders associated with iron overload, from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to cancer and cardiovascular disease. Multivitamin and mineral formulations for maturing individuals should not contain extra iron for that very reason. Pregnant women have increased iron requirements and should consult their physician to determine if iron supplementation is appropriate. Be certain that your supplements are appropriate to your own body’s iron status. Curcumin Curcumin is the major chemical component of the spice turmeric, which has multiple health benefits as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory molecule.47-49 The unexpected discovery that curcumin is also a powerful iron chelator has given us new insight into its multimodal mechanisms of action in gaining control of age-related iron accumulations in the brain, heart, and liver.50-53 Iron chelation by curcumin is now recognized as one of the mechanisms by which it prevents cognitive deficits and pathological tissue changes in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease.48 In addition to its direct chelation of iron, curcumin induces increased genetic expression of the body’s natural iron-binding and transport protein,ferritin, further sequestering iron away from vulnerable tissues.50 These multiple capabilities lead directly to reduction in iron levels in iron-overloaded organs.50,53-55 Recently, it was discovered that curcumin’s iron-chelating ability helps restore natural DNA repair mechanisms, an additional means of protecting damaged neurons in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.56 And, in a fashion similar to cranberry polyphenols, curcumin can inhibit growth of microorganisms (in this case, yeast) by depriving them of the iron they need to reproduce.57 Milk Thistle (Silymarin and Silibinin) Milk thistle extracts have been used for centuries in managing diseases of the liver and gallbladder.58 Iron accumulations and the resulting oxidant stress in liver tissue are responsible for progressive fibrosis (scarring) and ultimately liver failure.2,59 Early work on milk thistle extracts focused on their antioxidant functions, but more recently evidence for potent iron chelation has been revealed as an additional liver-protective mechanism.58,60 Iron-overloaded animals can be protected from the liver fibrosis-inducing effects of iron by regular doses of silibinin, a milk thistle component.2,59 Impressive human data for the impact of silibinin on iron-overloaded patients is now available. In patients with chronic hepatitis C, in whom iron accumulations contribute to liver failure, treatment with a mixture of silibinin and soy complex resulted in a significant decrease in serum levels of ferritin, the iron-bound protein that reflects total body iron levels.61 In patients with thalassemia major, who have massive iron accumulations as a result of multiple transfusions, 140 mg three times per day of the milk thistle component silymarin enhanced the iron-chelating effects of the drug desferrioxamine.62 Similar results have been shown using 140 mg per day of silibinin in patients with another form of iron overload, hereditary hemochromatosis.63 Lipoic Acid and Carnitine Lipoic acid and carnitine are small-molecule nutrients vital to your body’s management of its energy flow.64,65 Potent antioxidants, they are both credited with protecting mitochondria and thereby slowing the aging process. Exciting work is now emerging that shows that each of these nutrients, in each of several forms, exerts its favorable anti-aging effects by chelating iron as well.64-66 A form of carnitine called L-propionyl carnitine is known to improve heart muscle recovery after a heart attack. It acts as an energy source for heart muscles, and also as an anti-free radical agent in damaged heart tissue; the latter effect has now been shown to be the result of iron chelation.65 Another form, acetyl-L-carnitine, exhibits powerful antioxidant effects that reverse the impact of iron-induced oxidative stress in human cells.67 Lipoic acid chelates iron in lysosomes, cellular components that are a site of iron storage, effectively preventing iron-induced oxidative damage.68,69 This nutrient also reduces iron uptake by cells in the lens of the eye, suggesting a potential role in preventing cataract formation.70 An important animal study has now demonstrated that supplementation with R-lipoic acid reverses age-related accumulation of iron in rat brain tissue and restores normal antioxidant activity.71 This study has direct bearing on the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases in humans, the very conditions that Dr. Bartzokis and colleagues have been studying at UCLA. Summary Milik Thistle Accumulation of iron in cells is a widely overlooked and inevitable consequence of aging. Pathologic age-related iron overload damages cells and tissues and is a causative factor in numerous degenerative diseases, including liver fibrosis, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Few doctors inform their patients of the dangers of excess iron, nor do they test for total-body iron status. Excessive iron accumulations are found in affected brain areas of people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases. Even in normal older adults, people with higher brain iron accumulations perform more poorly on cognitive tests than do those with lower brain iron concentrations. A breakthrough UCLA study demonstrates that limiting lifetime exposure to iron can reduce brain iron accumulation. A number of nutrients can help reduce your body’s total exposure to iron through chelation (binding to free iron atoms) and antioxidant activity. These include quercetin, curcumin, R-lipoic acid, and milk thistle. The majority of people should avoid multi-vitamin supplements fortified with iron, as most aging individuals already have too much iron in their bodies. • If you have any questions on the scientific content of this article, please call a Life Extension® Health Advisor at 1-866-864-3027. http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2012/3/excess-iron-brain-degeneration/page-01 Healthwise

Four Unexpected Benefits of Donating Blood

Most people donate blood because they want to help others, and, indeed, donating blood a single time may help save the lives of up to three people.1Still, less than 10 percent of the US population eligible to donate blood actually does so every year.

July 28, 2014

Story at-a-glance

• Repeated blood donations may help your blood to flow better, reducing viscosity, and possibly helping to limit damage to the lining of your blood vessels, which should result in fewer arterial blockages
• Every blood donor gets a “mini physical” prior to donation to check blood pressure, hemoglobin, and temperature, along with testing for 13 infectious diseases
• People who volunteer for altruistic reasons, i.e. to help others rather than themselves, live longer than those who volunteer for more self-centered reasons
• For each unit of blood donated, you lose about one-quarter of a gram of iron, which is one of the best ways to avoid the health risks associated with iron overload
• Your body has a limited capacity to excrete iron, so it can easily build up in and damage organs like your liver, heart, and pancreas; many adult men and postmenopausal women are at risk for health problems associated with excess iron

By Dr. Mercola

Most people donate blood because they want to help others, and, indeed, donating blood a single time may help save the lives of up to three people.1Still, less than 10 percent of the US population eligible to donate blood actually does so every year.

Why don’t more people donate blood on a regular basis? According to the American Red Cross, the most common reasons given by people who don’t give blood are because they “never thought about it” or “don’t like needles.”

It may be time to start thinking about it today, or muster up the courage to overcome your fear of needles, as giving blood doesn’t only help others… it helps you too.

Four Benefits of Giving Blood

Someone in the US needs blood every two seconds,2 so if you’re up for doing a good deed, donating blood is a phenomenal choice. More than 41,000 blood donations are needed each day, and because blood cannot be manufactured, the only way to supply this need is via generous blood donors. It’s certainly an altruistic act… but it’s also one that offers important yet little-discussed benefits.

1. Balance Iron Levels in Your Blood

In my view, this is clearly the most important reason. For each unit of blood donated, you lose about one-quarter of a gram of iron.

You may at first think this is a bad thing, since too little iron may lead to fatigue, decreased immunity, or iron-deficiency anemia, which can be serious if left untreated. This is common in children and premenopausal women.

But what many people fail to realize is that too much iron can be worse, and is actually far more common than iron deficiency (especially in men and postmenopausal women).

So for many, the fact that donating blood helps to rid your body of excess iron is one of the greatest benefits it offers. It has been long known that menstruating women have fewer heart attacks. This was previously thought to be due to hormones but is now thought to be due to lower iron levels.

Similar to premenopausal women, blood donors have been found to be 88 percent less likely to suffer from a heart attack,3 and this is thought to be due to its effects on iron levels. Researchers explained:

“Because high body iron stores have been suggested as a risk factor for acute myocardial infarction, donation of blood could theoretically reduce the risk by lowering body iron stores.”

Interestingly, in a study published in the April 2013 issue of American Journal of Public Health,4 researchers found that statin cholesterol-lowering drugs improved cardiovascular outcomes at least partially by countering the pro-inflammatory effects of excess iron stores.

In this study, the improved outcomes were associated with lower ferritin (iron) levels but not with “improved” lipid status. Researchers concluded iron reduction might be a safe and low-cost alternative to statins, and according to logic this means that donating your blood, which reduces iron, could potentially help too.

2. Better Blood Flow

Do you know what a high-sugar diet, smoking, radio frequencies, and other toxic electromagnetic forces, emotional stress, anxiety, high cholesterol, and high uric acid levels do to your blood?

All of these make your blood hypercoagulable, meaning it makes it thick and slow moving, which increases your risk of having a blood clot or stroke. Hypercoagulable blood contributes to inflammation, because when your blood does not flow well, oxygen can't get to your tissues.

For example, early (and some current) birth control pills were notorious for causing heart attacks in women. One of the mechanisms that cause this increased risk is that synthetic estrogens and progesterones increase blood viscosity.

Repeated blood donations may help your blood to flow better, possibly helping to limit damage to the lining of your blood vessels, which should result in fewer arterial blockages. (Grounding can also help to thin dangerously thick blood.) Phillip DeChristopher, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Loyola University Health System blood bank, told TIME:5

“What is clear is that blood donors seem to not be hospitalized so often and if they are, they have shorter lengths of stay… And they’re less likely to get heart attacks, strokes, and cancers.”

3. You Get a Mini Physical

Every blood donor gets a “mini physical” prior to donation. Your temperature will be checked along with your blood pressure, pulse, and hemoglobin. Your blood will also be tested for 13 infectious diseases like HIV, hepatitis B and C, West Nile Virus, and syphilis.

Donating blood is certainly not a replacement for medical care, but it does give you a (free) glimpse into your health (as well as notice if you’ve been exposed to an infectious disease without knowing).

4. A Longer Life

People who volunteer for altruistic reasons, i.e. to help others rather than themselves, appear to live longer than those who volunteer for more self-centered reasons. Altruistic volunteers enjoyed a significantly reduced risk of mortality four years later according to one study,6 with the study’s lead author noting:7

“This could mean that people who volunteer with other people as their main motivation may be buffered from potential stressors associated with volunteering, such as time constraints and lack of pay.”

What You Should Know About Excess Iron Levels

Iron is essential for life, as it is a key part of various proteins and enzymes, involved in the transport of oxygen and the regulation of cell growth and differentiation, among many other uses.

One of the most important roles of iron is to provide hemoglobin (the protein in red blood cells that contains iron at its core), a mechanism through which it can bind to oxygen and carry it throughout your tissues, as without proper oxygenation, your cells quickly start dying.

However, because your body has a limited capacity to excrete iron, it can easily build up in organs like your liver, heart, and pancreas. This is dangerous because iron is a potent oxidizer and can damage your body tissues contributing to serious health issues. Cancer researchers have found evidence that bowel cancers are two to three times more likely to develop when dietary iron is too high in your body.8 High iron levels have also been linked to:

Cirrhosis	Liver cancer	Cardiac arrhythmias
Type one diabetes	Alzheimer's disease	Bacterial and viral infections

This is a personal issue for me, as getting my dad’s iron levels checked saved his life 20 years ago. I discovered he had a ferritin level close to 1,000. It was because he has beta-thalassemia. With regular phlebotomies, his iron levels normalized and now the only side effect he has is type 1 diabetes. His high iron levels damaged his pancreatic islet cells triggering what is called “bronze” diabetes, and so he requires the use of insulin.

I also inherited beta-thalassemia from him but thankfully, I am able to keep my iron levels normal by removing about a pint of blood a year. This is removed not all at once but over a few dozen deposits. I screen myself with ferritin levels several times a year. I also screened my patients with ferritin levels and noticed nearly one-fourth of them had elevated levels. So I would strongly encourage you and your family to be screened annually for this, as it is SO MUCH easier to prevent iron overload than it is to treat it.

Hemochromatosis is one of the most prevalent genetic diseases in the US. The C282Y gene mutation is thought to be responsible for the majority of hemochromatosis cases. It takes two inherited copies of the mutation (one from your mother and one from your father) to cause the disease (and even then only some people will actually get sick). If you have just one mutation, you won’t become ill but you will absorb slightly more iron than the rest of the population, a trait that may have given people an advantage when dietary sources of iron were scarce.

Have You Had a Ferritin Screen?

Checking your iron levels is easy and can be done with a simple blood test called a serum ferritin test. I believe this is one of the most important tests that everyone should have done on a regular basis as part of a preventive, proactive health screen. The test measures the carrier molecule of iron, a protein found inside cells called ferritin, which stores the iron. If your ferritin levels are low, it means your iron levels are also low.

The healthy range of serum ferritin lies between 20 and 80 ng/ml. Below 20 is a strong indicator that you are iron deficient, and above 80 suggests you have an iron surplus. The ideal range is between 40-60 ng/ml. The higher the number over 100 the worse the iron overload, with levels over 300 being particularly toxic. Levels this high will eventually cause serious damage in nearly everyone that sustains those levels long term.

Four Common Factors That Increase Your Risk of Iron Overload

People with hemochromatosis are not the only ones who may accumulate more iron than is healthy. While premenopausal women who are menstruating regularly rarely suffer from iron overload due to the monthly loss of blood, most adult men and postmenopausal women tend to be at a high risk, as they don't have a monthly blood loss (one of the best ways you can get rid of excess iron is by bleeding). Another common cause of excess iron is the regular consumption of alcohol, which will increase the absorption of any iron in your diet. For instance, if you drink wine with your steak, you will likely be absorbing more iron than you need. Other potential causes of high iron levels include:

1. Cooking in iron pots or pans. Cooking acidic foods in these types of pots or pans will cause even higher levels of iron absorption.
2. Eating processed food products like cereals and white breads that are "fortified' with iron. The iron they use in these products is inorganic iron, not much different than rust, and it is far more dangerous than the iron in meat.
3. Drinking well water that is high in iron. The key here is to make sure you have some type of iron precipitator and/or a reverse osmosis water filter.
4. Taking multiple vitamins and mineral supplements, as both of these frequently have iron in them.

If you find out that your iron levels are elevated or you have hemochromatosis, donating your blood is the safest, most effective, and most inexpensive approach to remedy this problem. If, for some reason, a blood donor center is unable to accept your blood for donation, you can obtain a prescription for therapeutic phlebotomy. At the same time, you will want to be sure to avoid consuming excess iron in the form of supplements, in your drinking water (well water), from iron cookware, or in fortified processed foods.  

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/07/28/blood-donation-benefits.aspx

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