Academic

THIS MAY BE ANOTHER REASON TO DONATE BLOOD: Iron overload may accelerate Alzheimer?s. UPDATE: ?

By Glenn Reynolds

THIS MAY BE ANOTHER REASON TO DONATE BLOOD: Iron overload may accelerate Alzheimer’s.

UPDATE: Reader Jim Martinec writes with a correction: “As a hospital blood bank manager I always appreciate your messages promoting blood donation. However, I think you may have misstated the thrust of the article on iron overload and Alzheimer’s. In the paper brain cells become overloaded with Iron because the transport channel to remove iron becomes damaged by zinc. Blood donation won’t help with this particular issue and, unfortunately, there is no indication that removing zinc from one’s diet would be helpful either.”

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on September 12, 2010 (boomark / email).