IRON- how it gets there and why it's important - made simple

[MegansMom]

Iron is important, it is in the human body for a purpose. It's role is to carry oxygen. iron is part of every Red Blood Cell in the hemoglobin. This is really the only place iron should be. It's eaten, and then absorbed and used by the bone marrow ( the blood cell making factory) and then in the RBCs. Each RBC lives approximately 120 days. Then they fall apart and the body breaks down the parts and it's eliminated. The body breaks it down to ferritin and hemosiderin and macrophages ( white blood cells that are the clean up crew) and they are removed as waste processed and eliminated from the body. Some iron is reused.

Red Blood Cells are funny looking and slippery little suckers but they are somewhat fragile. They can get fractured prematurely by different things. usually it's something pathological such as turbulence. This can be from a heart lung machine in surgery, a malformed heart valve or fractured bone.
The insides of any vessel or organ that passes blood through it has a silky lining made of endothelium.
Usually endothelium is designed for flow to go ONE WAY! One way no pooling no stopping, veins, venules, arteries, arteriolar, heart, all silky smooth, one way !

Then you thrown in reflux, and refluxed flow causes turbulence and turbulence fractures RBCs. Remember this is very slow and over a long time... Years. Not acutely. And much like iron in toilet water, it will adhere to walls.

If the iron will break down quite fast. It oxidizes. It's pretty potent too. It leaves free radicals and these are not good.
It can damage the BBB and eat through things, much like rust can.

So after CCSVI venoplasty the turbulence would be averted or minimized and the normal flow restored ( at least that's the goal)

Hopefully some of the hemostiderin ( iron at the broken down stage) that's in the brain can be eventually absorbed and washed out. Given a good healthy immune system with a strong army of white cells this clean up could potentially continue over a long time.

So after venoplasty it's not just the plumbing there are lots of things that could be occurring.

Science will tell, some day.

I just wanted to help some people understand the dynamics when the scientists talk about iron and the brain.

There are several ways you can enhance the removal, after liberation.
Green tea helps ( and there are other foods too)

Thanks or the ear.

[Gordon]

This makes sense to me. An iron reduced diet while you recover makes sense as well.

Thanks Cat

Gordon

[MS_HOPE]

Thanks for the mini-education, MegansMom. It's posts like yours that keep me coming back to TIMS. Much appreciated.

Gordon, from what I understand, we don't want to necessarily reduce our intake of iron, which the body needs (as pointed out by MM). The problem is that it's getting where it shouldn't be; it seems that the recommendation by cheerleader and MM, for taking green tea extract (EGCG) may make more sense. This helps selectively chelate the iron from the brain, I believe.

No expertise here, just readin' and thinkin' it through as best I can with a cog-fogged brain.

[jimmylegs]

and ensuring healthy serum zinc not ms patient levels. forum search keywords iron dysregulation zinc, filter on posts not topics, author = yours truly.