Give blood and save lives ─ maybe even your own

Like 100,000 other Australians, you may be traveling with a killer genes that will end your life early and even know. However, the condition is simple to treat hemochromatosis, and you can find out if you are at risk by donating blood only. Cricket is great Mike Hussey It has a situation, but don’t worry, donors regularly Life And good. But are you? Your children?
Last week (1-7 June) World Hemochromatosis Week. You may have noticed ground signs like Gabba all over the country, you may be lit in red. – For this reason.
HemochromatosisOr iron excessive load disorder is a common medical condition that kills an enormous number of people. 180 is caused by a genetic mutation shared by about 1 in Australian and potentially deadly if it is left untreated. – Nevertheless, he’s flying under the radar. Unfortunately, even though most of them have no idea that people who have a large cause are at risk and never treatment. It should not do because it is easy to treat and it is simple to detect.
As Dan Johnstone from Hemochromatosis Australia (Ha) says in the video below:
“It is easy to diagnose and treat, but it is deadly to ignore.”
The most common symptoms – fatigue, drowsiness, joint pain – is often easy to overlook as it is often diagnosed as only part of aging. Therefore, it is usually called the “silent killer .. However, these harmless symptoms can hide the fact that you are slowly rushed from the inside. Diabetes, heart and lung problems, stomach and skin conditions, movement disorders and most common liver disease – Very often results in fatal liver cancer – It may be in the warehouse for you. “Mr. Cricket” was for Ted Hussey, the father of Mike Hussey.
Be like Mike: Get Test
This year, HA added a high -profile voice to introduce his cases, Michael Hussey.
Mike told IA that he was called “Mr. Cricket” because “There are better people about the jack than me and there are more people.” Hussey is among the top ten to 20 doughs so far to play the game. Average 52 In the test jack and one -day international (ODI) 48. – Another reason why it is loved by jack lovers everywhere.
Former Australian cricket captain lost his father tragically, TED HUSSEYLiver cancer. In this organ, hemochromatosis caused the accumulation of iron. TED was a first -class athlete in his youth and was a former board member of the WA Cricket Association. He was fit and live in his 60s before he was diagnosed with liver cancer. Ted Hussey died in 2014 at the age of 72. Men’s Life Wayness It is 81 in Australia.
IA He asked Mike Hussey if his father TED had a factor in retirement of international cricket in 2013.
TED was diagnosed with hemochromatosis and caused Mike to have a genetic test for HFE in its 20s. It was found to have genetic markers, but long before they had any health effects.
Mike is one since then Australia Red Cross Damascus The center is the center every few months to make iron levels good in the normal range.
Mike told IA:
“This is not a problem at all, and it’s not just good for me, but I also like to save other people’s lives.”
Mike Hussey was 50 years old last week. Coaching Galli Fire enter into the team Hundreds of. He had no complications from his genetic state. Experts argue that Mike will probably never be if it maintains this regime.
Iron Facts: Waiting, Donation
The story of Mike Hussey is an encouraging story with a melancholic note. Because if Mike’s father Ted has never developed liver disease and has been found to have hemochromatosis, Mike may have been tested at all.
Everything comes to genetics. . Hfe gene It is generally responsible for hereditary hemochromatosis. It is seen that this gene has been mutated in Northern Europe during the dark ages and caused those who carry more iron than their diets. Initially, diets can be a genetic advantage when low on iron. Now, of course, it has become an important problem in people with iron -rich diets.
There are two main variants of the mutated HFE gene: C282y and H63d. People who inherit a C282y gene from both parents (homozygous) are mostly highly loaded with iron among men. A combination of C282Y and H63D (compound heterozygous) can also develop high iron levels.
Those who carry a copy of these gene variants are not higher at the risk of developing excessive iron load, but they are carriers. Therefore, even if none of your parents have an iron excessive load, both are the carriers, you carry a risk of concluding with iron excessive load disorder. And since symptoms often do not appear until their 40s and 50s and are the same as the people who slow down, hemochromatosis can be one of the least diagnosed conditions of everyone.
Although more people donate blood in the Damb of Red Cross life, they not only save lives, but also test the blood ironing levels of all new donors. This initiative began about a year ago and was made to ensure that new donors did not suffer from low iron, a common event. However, he threw people suffering from high iron. In both cases, if there is a high or low, an iron abnormality, you will receive a letter from the Red Cross to your medical practitioner. All of them are part of the service in Red Cross Lifeblood and you can save even a few lives. They also offer hot and cold drinks and various attractive snacks. Free!
But wait… There is more! Accordingly Peter Bentley Testing process from Lifblood, including every 10th Donation from normal donors, also tests for a number of other conditions.
Dr Bentley said:
“In addition, we will inform other transfusion -related diseases as well as whether they tested positively for Hepatitis B and C.”
Dr. Bentley said that about 4% of men and 1% of women’s blood donors for the first time have high levels of serum ferritin, and therefore will receive a notification after donating the lifeblood.
Good note: high-iron people, like others, are welcomed by the lifeblood using these therapeutic donations-for blood-saving blood transfusion, often in critical conditions.
Still, there is a problem – many GP, as Dr Bentley said, seems to be addressing people with the iron load of the Red Cross IA:
In fact, only one -third of patients suffer from overloading iron donates their blood to the Red Cross and two -thirds take their flebotomies [also known as venesections] In other ways, usually hospitals.
Unfortunately, this blood is usually thrown and not used to help other people.
He said that the Red Cross was trying to promise medical practitioners, but it was difficult.
Dr Bentley said:
“Red Cross In July or August, an article designed to inform them that people who come out of the Australian General Application Magazine and suffer from hemochromatosis can safely donate blood in the damp. ”
Of course, people with high levels of ferritin may have hemochromatosis or may not be because of other factors such as obesity or bad health. Only the next genetic tests will tell you exactly. And since the iron accumulates over time, you can usually appear only in the middle age, you can have a mutant gene pair, and after doning blood, you still can’t get a letter from the Red Cross.
So Australia needs less temporary Test system for hemochromatosis.
Whose heamochromatosis
The truth is that most people do not donate blood in the dampies, as the red cross desperately shortening too much blood and plasma. And if a symptom does not end – And most of the symptoms of excessive iron loads can be easily rejected as part of the aging process. – Most people want blood tests from GPs, which can detect the levels of abnormal ferritis in the blood. And as mentioned, even this will not be sure whether you have a genetic mutation that causes you with hemochromatosis and has a high risk of developing fatal iron overload disorder.
Therefore, it forces for a wider speech about the population test for the medical brotherhood, the government and the general population. This may take the selective test form for the entire risk group of the entire population of a particular age group, as for intestinal cancer, or the entire risk of the entire population in a particular age group.
Dr Johnstone from Ha’nın ha, told us:
Hemochromatosis Australia strongly supports all individuals to strengthen all individuals who have knowledge about the risks of hemochromatosis and thus strengthen them to make conscious decisions about how to manage their health at the population level.
The question is, how do you do it, when do you do it and how old do you do?
It will always be a return from governments about the possibility of bringing a country -wide program to a large extent both financially and logistics, for cost reasons.
Dr Johnstone claimed that these concerns were alleviated by the latest developments in medical science:
Costs of tests have fallen in recent years.
Now we spit in the current tube test, when it requires a blood test before. The genetic screening test of the population can also test a number of other genetic states with treatments.
Indeed, Dr Johnstone said that there is a population test program where genetic tests can be easily included:
The HFE gene has been discussed in the newborn test, which is currently entirely biochemical. There is no real obstacle.
Before 1998, when the HFE gene is discovered, it takes a liver biopsy to determine whether a person has a disorder. Now the test process is much simpler and less intervening.
However, the failure of the whole population, who should be tested and when? A comprehensive study of worldwide medical practitioners proposes the best to test the highest risk group between the ages of 20-30.
“Thought is to test people before they start developing symptoms,” Dr. Johnstone.
However, there is no population test yet. At this stage, you need to ask for a genetic test from your GP.
This takes us to the last point. Even if you don’t care about yourself, consider being tested for your children.
Ha don’t joke (or to be ironic)
Many people have a comfortable attitude towards their personal security by choosing to allow fate to decide. For some, ignorance is happiness. What if you have children? Don’t they deserve to know if they can prevent them from dying very young? Because even if you have only one copy of an HFE gene variant and therefore will never develop hemochromatosis, your partner may also result in a couple and therefore get the situation.
Mike Hussey worked as a science teacher during the day. He has four children between the ages of 12 and 21, and his scientific approach is perhaps something we can all learn.
IA Considering whether he had a Hfe Gen pair, he asked if he had tested his children.
At this early stage, there is no hurry to test them, but he looks at him.
My wife [Amy Hussey] It will be tested first. If it doesn’t have it, it has no chance of buying.
If you are in the past of Northern Europe – And especially if you have the Irish or Scandinavian lineage, where the risk is even larger – ask your GP to be tested for hemochromatosis.
Or at least go to the dump of life and donate blood. Life can save – maybe yours. Maybe even your family.
Be like Mike.
Dave Donovan, the founder and director of independent Australia, is a member of Hemochromatosis Australia and has the heterozygous form of the situation. You can read the story of iron overload here. You can follow him on X (Old name twitter). @Davrosz.
You can also be a HA member or you can be a taxable gift. HERE.
Support independent journalism subscribe to IA.

Related articles