Does anybody know how kava and iron relate

[schatz]

I have just recently in the last 2 years ran through the modern American medical travesty and hypocrisy. Everything from the Mayo clinic diagnosing me with parkinsons last Aug to a local neuro dr. last month telling me I most likely have Lewy bodys in my brain and will dy in a few years and then find them at autopsy. Anyone remember Robin Williams. Anyway they would say it is nothing curable and they would just treat symptoms till I died. And did I forget to mention that I have been doing kava this whole time and longer maybe 2-3 years. So just for the hell of it my sister purchased me a 23 and me kit and it turns out it said I have acopy of the hemotomachrosis gene. Do you think anyone thought to look at my iron levels all this time? So am just curious if anyone knows if kava would have any negative or positive effects on iron. Thanks for reading my rant.

 

[Zaphod]

I have just recently in the last 2 years ran through the modern American medical travesty and hypocrisy. Everything from the Mayo clinic diagnosing me with parkinsons last Aug to a local neuro dr. last month telling me I most likely have Lewy bodys in my brain and will dy in a few years and then find them at autopsy. Anyone remember Robin Williams. Anyway they would say it is nothing curable and they would just treat symptoms till I died. And did I forget to mention that I have been doing kava this whole time and longer maybe 2-3 years. So just for the hell of it my sister purchased me a 23 and me kit and it turns out it said I have acopy of the hemotomachrosis gene. Do you think anyone thought to look at my iron levels all this time? So am just curious if anyone knows if kava would have any negative or positive effects on iron. Thanks for reading my rant.

All I have is anecdotal. I have been drinking kava nearly daily for 2.5 years and recently had blood work done which included testing for iron levels - they were all in the normal range, no issues.

OT: As far as your rant - keep ranting, the medical system in the US is f'ed up beyond belief. I can't believe that somehow it has turned into a political issue that has somehow convinced people that "we have the best healthcare in the world" and it shouldn't change. We pay the most and get the least. It will only change when enough of us rant. I have decent insurance and 3 times this year I had to fight insurance to cover what my doctor had prescribed for either myself or a family member. If my f'in doctor prescribed it, it should be covered - end of story.....grrrrr.

 

[schatz]

So far all my liver panels have been normal also and it seems that high iron levels can compromise the liver first and go on to the heart next and so on through all the many organs and parts of brain. It even will cross the blood brain barrier and give neurological symptoms as I am walkiig proof of that. Over 1 million of us are walking around with this genetic defect and if you have 2 copies of the defective gene, then you are guaranteed to be an iron loader and if you only have one copy like I do you have a 50 50 chance of getting it. You think since this is the most common genetic defect, 1 in 250 caucasions, that doctors would be checking iron levels at least on patients. And sometimes the person even shows no symptom and has normal liver blood work, but can be doing damage to their liver, especially if you drink alcohol. Pretty scary. I have forgone insurance in the last 2 years and have saved 20,000 in premiums and another 20 in deductibles on top of that if I neede medical attention anyway.This way by self paying I am saving a load, unless knock on wood something serious comes up. So far I am up 30 grand in two years, but one mayjor event and I as well as many of us will be wiped out financially and probably homeless. But here we sit and take it, thinking it won't happen to me. Bye for now, thanks for listening.

 

[Krunkie McKrunkface]

So far all my liver panels have been normal also and it seems that high iron levels can compromise the liver first and go on to the heart next and so on through all the many organs and parts of brain. It even will cross the blood brain barrier and give neurological symptoms as I am walkiig proof of that. Over 1 million of us are walking around with this genetic defect and if you have 2 copies of the defective gene, then you are guaranteed to be an iron loader and if you only have one copy like I do you have a 50 50 chance of getting it. You think since this is the most common genetic defect, 1 in 250 caucasions, that doctors would be checking iron levels at least on patients. And sometimes the person even shows no symptom and has normal liver blood work, but can be doing damage to their liver, especially if you drink alcohol. Pretty scary. I have forgone insurance in the last 2 years and have saved 20,000 in premiums and another 20 in deductibles on top of that if I neede medical attention anyway.This way by self paying I am saving a load, unless knock on wood something serious comes up. So far I am up 30 grand in two years, but one mayjor event and I as well as many of us will be wiped out financially and probably homeless. But here we sit and take it, thinking it won't happen to me. Bye for now, thanks for listening.

my uncle and younger brother had it, but me and my other brother didn't get it. It often goes undiagnosed as it often hits older men and they look like alcoholics, so they tend to get dismissed on both accounts, even if the person is otherwise healthy and doesn't drink. A lot of prejudice is involved in this with hemachromatosis. My brother used to have to regularly go for treatments where they just basically took out blood by the pints, in order to lessen the iron overload in his system. He had to give up what was a promising career as a professional golfer.

 

[schatz]

my uncle and younger brother had it, but me and my other brother didn't get it. It often goes undiagnosed as it often hits older men and they look like alcoholics, so they tend to get dismissed on both accounts, even if the person is otherwise healthy and doesn't drink. A lot of prejudice is involved in this with hemachromatosis. My brother used to have to regularly go for treatments where they just basically took out blood by the pints, in order to lessen the iron overload in his system. He had to give up what was a promising career as a professional golfer.

Sorry to hear about you're brother and father Crunkie, so far I think I am reversing it also through blood donations to the red cross. Will know how high my ferriten levels are soon, so I know how much to drain and see the progress. But for now just giving blindly and seeing some of my symptoms go away. But still enjoying my kava. Oh and by the way I am only 54 years old but this stuff can make a 50 year old feel like 90. Carry on.

 

[Krunkie McKrunkface]

You haven't once complained of how painful it is. I'm impressed. I understand it usually is, especially in cases like yours. I'm very glad you are able to enjoy kava.

 

[schatz]

You haven't once complained of how painful it is. I'm impressed. I understand it usually is, especially in cases like yours. I'm very glad you are able to enjoy kava.

I wish I could say that, The weird thing is I have felt no pain except for some tendinitis a few years back, which may have been my early warning sign that something was going on. Maybe it's the kava that I have been drinking nightly for the past few years, and further testament to the powers of kava. I agree that pain is one of the main symptoms and I have been unusal while my mother has classic signs that she has been living with for the last fourty years like fibromyalgia and arthritis. I will now have her tested for iron levels next week hopefully. mine has been different as is the case with this which makes it so hard to pin down. Iron can pass the blood brain barrier in some cases and it did in mine. I have had a lot of neurological symptoms that could make it hard to diagnose. It is just hard to believe that there are a lot of people out there walking around out there being missed diagnosed or thinking they are going crazy when all this can be relieved with a little midevil blood letting.

 

[Krunkie McKrunkface]

I wish I could say that, The weird thing is I have felt no pain except for some tendinitis a few years back, which may have been my early warning sign that something was going on. Maybe it's the kava that I have been drinking nightly for the past few years, and further testament to the powers of kava. I agree that pain is one of the main symptoms and I have been unusal while my mother has classic signs that she has been living with for the last fourty years like fibromyalgia and arthritis. I will now have her tested for iron levels next week hopefully. mine has been different as is the case with this which makes it so hard to pin down. Iron can pass the blood brain barrier in some cases and it did in mine. I have had a lot of neurological symptoms that could make it hard to diagnose. It is just hard to believe that there are a lot of people out there walking around out there being missed diagnosed or thinking they are going crazy when all this can be relieved with a little midevil blood letting.

Above all my relatives had crushing tiredness, but also lots of very painful aches.

 

[schatz]

Above all my relatives had crushing tiredness, but also lots of very painful aches.

I hear you on the fatigue symptom. But I am kind of glad I have gone through all this now or I would have never found kava and probably continued drinking alcohol. Although I wasn't what you would think of as a alcoholic, a lot of liver issues are brought on by drinking alcohol and iron overloading and most people never get symptoms or don't pay attention to them until it is too late or they have already damaged their liver. My first symptom that caught my attention was REM sleep disorder, which led me to kava a few years ago. If I wasn't married or slept with some body I would have never known I had it, and we laughed about it at first. It was kind of funny when it first started manifesting, I would speak in various tongues and basically flail and hit myself and wake up thinking I was still and got a good nights sleep. And then I started pretending I was shooting my shotgun one night and at that point we locked up all the guns and started looking around for an answer or cure.

 

[schatz]

I got my ferritin level and it was 300, so am donating blood for awhile. This is not to high I understand, but everybody is different and it seems that I might be more sensitive than most people and am kinda glad I am. It seems that most people don't have any symptoms of high iron levels in their blood or organs until it is too late like over 1000 on ferritin and iron does damage first to liver and usually dosen't even get noticed until liver failure or autopsy. It is really such a shame as it is very common and easy to cure or maintain if caught early before damage is done. It makes me wonder how many drinkers of alcohol or kava have abnormal liver panels due to high iron doing the real damage. Just wondering, have your iron checked and enjoy more kava.

 

[Krunkie McKrunkface]

I got my ferritin level and it was 300, so am donating blood for awhile. This is not to high I understand, but everybody is different and it seems that I might be more sensitive than most people and am kinda glad I am. It seems that most people don't have any symptoms of high iron levels in their blood or organs until it is too late like over 1000 on ferritin and iron does damage first to liver and usually dosen't even get noticed until liver failure or autopsy. It is really such a shame as it is very common and easy to cure or maintain if caught early before damage is done. It makes me wonder how many drinkers of alcohol or kava have abnormal liver panels due to high iron doing the real damage. Just wondering, have your iron checked and enjoy more kava.

yup, I've been getting my iron levels checked frequently for decades because of the family risk and since I started drinking kava I get my liver panels done every few months. Oddly, I have gout but never had uric acid over 6, so I need to figure that one out

 

[schatz]

It's been areal eye opener for me so far I am feeling 50% better and will give blood again tomorrow if they will let me. Try Chanca Piedra tea for your gout, I had kidney stones a year and a half ago 10 m.m. and they wanted to do surgery to take em out. I drank tea for 2 weeks and did an ct scan and they were down to less than 1 m.m. and I guess I passed those and never felt them. But as a side effect my gout symptoms went away, they weren't reall bad, but for a side effect I will take it. good luck.