First chapter and I am already hooked...extremely interesting. Aran Gordon had to deal with Hemochromatosis for over 30 years. Hemochromatosis is a hereditary disease that disrupts the way the body metabolizes iron. Any disease feeds up with iron and this is the way it multiplies, but what really interested me is the fact that iron deficiencies are the most common cause of shortness of breath. While a sophomore in High school I was diagnosed with Dyspnea (shortness of breath) and maybe the lack of iron was the cause or maybe too much iron was the problem. The chapter focuses the reader's attention. I did not know that egg white protects against infections, no one ever told me that. Going back to Mr. Gordon, he was told that he had five more years to live, but after a few months after his supposedly death he finished the Marathon Des Sables for the second time in April 2006.
The author uses such great detail while explaining which helps the reader understand so much better.
Ok, so after reading chapter one i had a question. My question was if the hemochromastosis drug kills you in forty years, but keeps you alive for the next day is it certain that you will die in forty years? I also has some ideas about bloodletting. During the 18th and 19th century when bloodletting was at it's prime, were there many doctors(if any) raising controversy over the idea of bloodletting? This question came to mind because normally and most of the time when there's an idea, there are supporters of the idea and "haters" of the idea. The "haters" want to bring the idea down, expose it's flaws and make the supporters if the idea, or better find their own supporters to back up what they believe. I wish these things would've been explained better or just plain explained.
this chapter has a alot of things that i didn't even heard of . this chapter has amazing facts. i have learned the fact that in early ages people covered their wound with egg white soaked straw to protect themselves from infection.iron makes people rusting to death. and i liked the way how the author explained every single fact in detail which helped me alot. he explained a lot about hemocchromatosis and also told the fact that bloodletting is the ancient medial pratices in the history . this chapter has amazing facts. and i beleive to learn more facts in the next chapter.
I learned so much in this first chapter that I haven't even know about. I find it interesting that iron is essential to almost all life on earth. It's interesting how it can cause you to die or make you healthy. Too much iron will lead to Hemocromatosis, a disorder that causes iron to build up in the body, damaging organs.It's also surprising that it helped the European people survive the plague even though it's deadly. Knowing these facts made me cautious of what might happen if I didn't know that iron rust even humans by shortness of breath.
Imani your question, "if the hemochromastosis drug kills you in forty years, but keeps you alive for the next day is it certain that you will die in forty years?" Caught my eye. My question is are you talking about hemochromastosis, when you say hemochromastosis drug or the drug taken to cure or slow it down? Anyways I will try to answer you question for both instances. Hemochromastosis, is caused when one has to much iron in his/her body. Well when that happens the iron starts to build up in one's body tissues (liver..etc). Well to much iron in one's liver is never good. that will kill one with him/her getting liver cancer or having liver failure; if not treated that is..not only that but in the long run this disease causes many more unpleasant deadly conditions. Now if you were talking about a "hemochromastosis drug," well from my understanding drugs are never good for your body and will destroy you organs such as liver and kidneys.So, if one takes to many drugs for a long period of time, it wont do them good. Also from my understanding, the main way to cure this disease is by taking blood out of one's body until the blood is normal again, with a normal about of iron. so I don't think there are drugs for this sickness. And if this sickness is not treated fast this will kill you in in 40 years (less-more) from my understanding. Anyways please don't hesitate to let me know if I didn't answer your question, or leave another comment.
For more information you may go on the website below it has eveything you would need to know about hemochromatosis -- http://www.drugs.com/enc/hemochromatosis.html
From -- Hamza Shah
-- I will be Posting for all the Chapters very soon.
Sonia in your post you talked a bit about Dyspnea. You stated that the it might have been caused due to to much iron in your body or to less iron in your body. I just wanted to clear things out.... From my understanding Dyspnea cannot be caused from to much iron or the lack of iron in your body; rather I believe it was caused due to anxiety or allergies, considering you are a person without major medical conditions. Anyways that just something that caught my eye and I wanted to inform you about. If you find me misleading, or have more questions please don't hesitate to comment.
Woh, a 150- run across the Sahara Desert is no joke. I personally really feel bad for Aran Gordon because it is kind of inferred that he didn’t get to run across the Sahara Desert. Hemochromatosis being a very rare disease, I guess it is understandable why so many doctors misdiagnosed it. I was reading a book this summer called How Doctors Think according to that, I can say the reason Aran was misdiagnosed by so many doctors because the doctors weren’t getting enough information out of him. That’s a bit off topic but, I just wanted to share that. Another thing I want to share is that, it is really hard for a doctor to help his/her patient if the doctor is not getting enough information. Doctors main book of answers are their patients. Anyways moving on…. I found Hemochromatosis very interesting just because it sounds simple, where if not treated can be extremely deadly. As I was reading I came thought a section where it inferred, that we asked for Hemochromatosis, in evolutionary terms that is. But, us humans are selfish and half the time we don’t know what we are doing and how it will affect us in the long run. We may have asked for Hemochromatosis but, we sure didn’t know we were asking for it…. “ Why would you take a drug that is guaranteed to kill you in forty years? One reason, right? It’s the only thing that will stop you from dying tomorrow. I don’t really get why the author put this in the novel. Yah, it was interesting to think about this, but after thinking I came to a conclusion where I can say the whole “statement” contradicts itself, therefore it’s kind of useless….Never knew Iron was so important for us; it carries oxygen through out body and helps do the “heavy work” throughout our body’s. I guess the conclusion about Iron can said to be is, Iron makes sure we get recycled. It helps us live out lives, but in many instances it is the reason we die. It’s funny how we can’t have to much iron in out bodies but, at the same time we can’t live without iron….interesting. The more interesting thing is that, it’s not just our bodies, it’s every living organism. “What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.” That is an amazing phrase. But, when talking about iron, doesn’t it make us stronger but, but when also kills us? Just something that came in my mind. Very interesting Chapter, lets see how the rest of the books goes with it.
Please let me know if you find anything misleading.
The first chapter of this amazing book was extremely interesting! As I was reading this chapter, I was asking myself so many questions. I was very impressed and shocked to find out that we CAN rust to death. Well, it really depends if were carriers of the trait or if our ancestors are from Western Europe. Also, reading about the plague and how healthy man are more vulnerable than breast feeding woman, or woman who have their menstruation, had a big impact on me. I always thought that the key to a long life was always being healthy. My mother would always tell me that when a person is ill, the body will get stronger as it recovers from the illness. I've always refused to believe this until now. Now I know that a healthy man, whose blood cells or macrophages are rich in iron could be compared to "magnets" of bad bacteria that feeds of it as it helps it spread throughout the body. So as I read, I began to wonder: could it be possible to create a type of vaccine of iron-deficient macrophages for those who i.e have an illness such as T.B.S since the iron-efficient macrophages are rich in iron therefore when they "trap" or subdue the infection/virus feeds it instead of actually killing it, the iron-deficient macrophages would balance it out or neutralize the disease since there would be about the same of efficient and deficient iron macrophages assuming that the vaccine would have the same amount of deficient macrophages as the body does.
I thougt this book was going to be boring like all other books teachers make us read. But after the first couple of pages i became more intrested. I thougt it as cool how he ran a deadly marathon through a desert. I learned that a diesease called hemochromatosis, whee the body takes in to muxh iron into the blod stream. I didnt know that having to much iron in your body could kill you. The first chapter taught me so much i cant wait to see what the second chapter brings me.
my mom suffers from anemia and diabetes. i never really understood exactly what anemia was, until i read it in this book. && i was wondering. DOES ANEMIA AND DIABETES HAVE A CONNECTION?
IMANI's questions caught my attention as well, because well i had the same question. && then Hamza answered. So thank you for that. =]].
&& ok so WOW. Everything about this book is constantly making me say WOW. Its amazing i love it so far. Only an intro && one chapter in im HOOKED just like SONIA. =]
So WOAH 150-mile race across the Sahara desert? At first, i was like well DUH your going to be in pain if your training for something like THAT! like are they insane? But then hemochromatosis came in. Its amazing how something so rare, can be so deadly, yet so easily treated if diagnosed. ((i think that came out right. =/))
I was also impressed with how our mucus, salivia, and EGG WHITES are full of chelators!i find that so random and weird, but again interesting. Also about how breast feeding helps prevent infections in newborns(=])beause the breasts milk contains lactoferrin, which is a chelating protein that binds with iron & prevents bacteria from feeding on it.
&& at the end of the chapter i was soooo happy to know that Aran Gordon was able to complete the Marathon des Sables for the second time a few months after he was supposed to die. =D
i basically think that IRON is the cause of so many deadly illnesses, but IRON is the solution to all of them. is this wrong or does anyone agree or anything? i just wanna know if where im headed is right.
So the only thing im wondering is why didn't hemochromatosis leave a long time ago like why didn't it evolve i guess? cause I'm not really getting the point of that.
Chapter one was so interesting. I learned so much in this chapter, that I didn't know before. Before, reading this chapter I thought iron was very important for everyone to have, and that to much iron doesn't mean anything. However, after reading chapter one of "Survival of the sickest" I learned that to much iron leads to harmful diseases like hemochromatosis.
RUST TO DEATH!!! This is so interesting. I never knew that iron is this important, I mean it is even responsible for carrying oxygen through our blood stream and releases it where it's needed. Iron is also responsible for the life in the ocean, oceans that are in the way of the wind that comes from the land have all types of living things because the dust that is blown to them contains iron while the oceans that are not in the way of these winds dont contain living things, thats how important is iron.I think that the idea of dumping lots of iron in the oceans so plants grow to fight the global warming is a great idea. Iron doesnt just have psitive effects but it also has negative ones too. For example people who are on antibiotics to fight a certain type of bacteria and dont watch their diet, the antibiotics might do the opposite of what is expected to be done and cause the bacteria to repreduce in massive numbers because the bacteria is feeding on the antibiotics and that can cause serious problems.
The first chapter was a little confusing. And to be honest it kind of scared me thinking that i could have hemochromatosis and not know it! i dont want to die at 40 years old! This also makes me angry because evolution is selfish: it only cares that we pass our genes to our offspring and their offspring and so on. it doesnt care about our feelings! Other than the scary diseases, the first chapter was very interesting and I learned a lot of things ive never even heard of.
First chapter and I am already hooked...extremely interesting.
ReplyDeleteAran Gordon had to deal with Hemochromatosis for over 30 years. Hemochromatosis is a hereditary disease that disrupts the way the body metabolizes iron. Any disease feeds up with iron and this is the way it multiplies, but what really interested me is the fact that iron deficiencies are the most common cause of shortness of breath.
While a sophomore in High school I was diagnosed with Dyspnea (shortness of breath) and maybe the lack of iron was the cause or maybe too much iron was the problem. The chapter focuses the reader's attention. I did not know that egg white protects against infections, no one ever told me that. Going back to Mr. Gordon, he was told that he had five more years to live, but after a few months after his supposedly death he finished the Marathon Des Sables for the second time in April 2006.
The author uses such great detail while explaining which helps the reader understand so much better.
Ok, so after reading chapter one i had a question. My question was if the hemochromastosis drug kills you in forty years, but keeps you alive for the next day is it certain that you will die in forty years?
ReplyDeleteI also has some ideas about bloodletting. During the 18th and 19th century when bloodletting was at it's prime, were there many doctors(if any) raising controversy over the idea of bloodletting? This question came to mind because normally and most of the time when there's an idea, there are supporters of the idea and "haters" of the idea. The "haters" want to bring the idea down, expose it's flaws and make the supporters if the idea, or better find their own supporters to back up what they believe. I wish these things would've been explained better or just plain explained.
this chapter has a alot of things that i didn't even heard of . this chapter has amazing facts. i have learned the fact that in early ages people covered their wound with egg white soaked straw to protect themselves from infection.iron makes people rusting to death. and i liked the way how the author explained every single fact in detail which helped me alot. he explained a lot about hemocchromatosis and also told the fact that bloodletting is the ancient medial pratices in the history . this chapter has amazing facts. and i beleive to learn more facts in the next chapter.
ReplyDeleteI learned so much in this first chapter that I haven't even know about. I find it interesting that iron is essential to almost all life on earth. It's interesting how it can cause you to die or make you healthy. Too much iron will lead to Hemocromatosis, a disorder that causes iron to build up in the body, damaging organs.It's also surprising that it helped the European people survive the plague even though it's deadly. Knowing these facts made me cautious of what might happen if I didn't know that iron rust even humans by shortness of breath.
ReplyDeleteImani your question, "if the hemochromastosis drug kills you in forty years, but keeps you alive for the next day is it certain that you will die in forty years?" Caught my eye. My question is are you talking about hemochromastosis, when you say hemochromastosis drug or the drug taken to cure or slow it down? Anyways I will try to answer you question for both instances. Hemochromastosis, is caused when one has to much iron in his/her body. Well when that happens the iron starts to build up in one's body tissues (liver..etc). Well to much iron in one's liver is never good. that will kill one with him/her getting liver cancer or having liver failure; if not treated that is..not only that but in the long run this disease causes many more unpleasant deadly conditions. Now if you were talking about a "hemochromastosis drug," well from my understanding drugs are never good for your body and will destroy you organs such as liver and kidneys.So, if one takes to many drugs for a long period of time, it wont do them good. Also from my understanding, the main way to cure this disease is by taking blood out of one's body until the blood is normal again, with a normal about of iron. so I don't think there are drugs for this sickness. And if this sickness is not treated fast this will kill you in in 40 years (less-more) from my understanding. Anyways please don't hesitate to let me know if I didn't answer your question, or leave another comment.
ReplyDeleteFor more information you may go on the website below it has eveything you would need to know about hemochromatosis -- http://www.drugs.com/enc/hemochromatosis.html
From -- Hamza Shah
-- I will be Posting for all the Chapters very soon.
Sonia in your post you talked a bit about Dyspnea. You stated that the it might have been caused due to to much iron in your body or to less iron in your body. I just wanted to clear things out.... From my understanding Dyspnea cannot be caused from to much iron or the lack of iron in your body; rather I believe it was caused due to anxiety or allergies, considering you are a person without major medical conditions. Anyways that just something that caught my eye and I wanted to inform you about. If you find me misleading, or have more questions please don't hesitate to comment.
ReplyDeleteFrom -- Hamza Shah
Woh, a 150- run across the Sahara Desert is no joke. I personally really feel bad for Aran Gordon because it is kind of inferred that he didn’t get to run across the Sahara Desert. Hemochromatosis being a very rare disease, I guess it is understandable why so many doctors misdiagnosed it. I was reading a book this summer called How Doctors Think according to that, I can say the reason Aran was misdiagnosed by so many doctors because the doctors weren’t getting enough information out of him. That’s a bit off topic but, I just wanted to share that. Another thing I want to share is that, it is really hard for a doctor to help his/her patient if the doctor is not getting enough information. Doctors main book of answers are their patients. Anyways moving on…. I found Hemochromatosis very interesting just because it sounds simple, where if not treated can be extremely deadly. As I was reading I came thought a section where it inferred, that we asked for Hemochromatosis, in evolutionary terms that is. But, us humans are selfish and half the time we don’t know what we are doing and how it will affect us in the long run. We may have asked for Hemochromatosis but, we sure didn’t know we were asking for it…. “ Why would you take a drug that is guaranteed to kill you in forty years? One reason, right? It’s the only thing that will stop you from dying tomorrow. I don’t really get why the author put this in the novel. Yah, it was interesting to think about this, but after thinking I came to a conclusion where I can say the whole “statement” contradicts itself, therefore it’s kind of useless….Never knew Iron was so important for us; it carries oxygen through out body and helps do the “heavy work” throughout our body’s. I guess the conclusion about Iron can said to be is, Iron makes sure we get recycled. It helps us live out lives, but in many instances it is the reason we die. It’s funny how we can’t have to much iron in out bodies but, at the same time we can’t live without iron….interesting. The more interesting thing is that, it’s not just our bodies, it’s every living organism.
ReplyDelete“What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.” That is an amazing phrase. But, when talking about iron, doesn’t it make us stronger but, but when also kills us? Just something that came in my mind. Very interesting Chapter, lets see how the rest of the books goes with it.
Please let me know if you find anything misleading.
-- Hamza Shah
The first chapter of this amazing book was extremely interesting! As I was reading this chapter, I was asking myself so many questions. I was very impressed and shocked to find out that we CAN rust to death. Well, it really depends if were carriers of the trait or if our ancestors are from Western Europe. Also, reading about the plague and how healthy man are more vulnerable than breast feeding woman, or woman who have their menstruation, had a big impact on me. I always thought that the key to a long life was always being healthy. My mother would always tell me that when a person is ill, the body will get stronger as it recovers from the illness. I've always refused to believe this until now. Now I know that a healthy man, whose blood cells or macrophages are rich in iron could be compared to "magnets" of bad bacteria that feeds of it as it helps it spread throughout the body. So as I read, I began to wonder: could it be possible to create a type of vaccine of iron-deficient macrophages for those who i.e have an illness such as T.B.S since the iron-efficient macrophages are rich in iron therefore when they "trap" or subdue the infection/virus feeds it instead of actually killing it, the iron-deficient macrophages would balance it out or neutralize the disease since there would be about the same of efficient and deficient iron macrophages assuming that the vaccine would have the same amount of deficient macrophages as the body does.
ReplyDelete-Marlon Itzep (:
I thougt this book was going to be boring like all other books teachers make us read. But after the first couple of pages i became more intrested. I thougt it as cool how he ran a deadly marathon through a desert. I learned that a diesease called hemochromatosis, whee the body takes in to muxh iron into the blod stream. I didnt know that having to much iron in your body could kill you. The first chapter taught me so much i cant wait to see what the second chapter brings me.
ReplyDeletemy mom suffers from anemia and diabetes. i never really understood exactly what anemia was, until i read it in this book. && i was wondering. DOES ANEMIA AND DIABETES HAVE A CONNECTION?
ReplyDeleteIMANI's questions caught my attention as well, because well i had the same question. && then Hamza answered. So thank you for that. =]].
&& ok so WOW.
Everything about this book is constantly making me say WOW.
Its amazing i love it so far.
Only an intro && one chapter in im HOOKED just like SONIA. =]
So WOAH 150-mile race across the Sahara desert?
At first, i was like well DUH your going to be in pain if your training for something like THAT! like are they insane? But then hemochromatosis came in. Its amazing how something so rare, can be so deadly, yet so easily treated if diagnosed. ((i think that came out right. =/))
I was also impressed with how our mucus, salivia, and EGG WHITES are full of chelators!i find that so random and weird, but again interesting. Also about how breast feeding helps prevent infections in newborns(=])beause the breasts milk contains lactoferrin, which is a chelating protein that binds with iron & prevents bacteria from feeding on it.
&& at the end of the chapter i was soooo happy to know that Aran Gordon was able to complete the Marathon des Sables for the second time a few months after he was supposed to die. =D
i basically think that IRON is the cause of so many deadly illnesses, but IRON is the solution to all of them. is this wrong or does anyone agree or anything? i just wanna know if where im headed is right.
So the only thing im wondering is why didn't hemochromatosis leave a long time ago like why didn't it evolve i guess? cause I'm not really getting the point of that.
Chapter one was so interesting. I learned so much in this chapter, that I didn't know before. Before, reading this chapter I thought iron was very important for everyone to have, and that to much iron doesn't mean anything. However, after reading chapter one of "Survival of the sickest" I learned that to much iron leads to harmful diseases like hemochromatosis.
ReplyDeleteRUST TO DEATH!!! This is so interesting. I never knew that iron is this important, I mean it is even responsible for carrying oxygen through our blood stream and releases it where it's needed. Iron is also responsible for the life in the ocean, oceans that are in the way of the wind that comes from the land have all types of living things because the dust that is blown to them contains iron while the oceans that are not in the way of these winds dont contain living things, thats how important is iron.I think that the idea of dumping lots of iron in the oceans so plants grow to fight the global warming is a great idea. Iron doesnt just have psitive effects but it also has negative ones too. For example people who are on antibiotics to fight a certain type of bacteria and dont watch their diet, the antibiotics might do the opposite of what is expected to be done and cause the bacteria to repreduce in massive numbers because the bacteria is feeding on the antibiotics and that can cause serious problems.
ReplyDeleteThe first chapter was a little confusing. And to be honest it kind of scared me thinking that i could have hemochromatosis and not know it! i dont want to die at 40 years old! This also makes me angry because evolution is selfish: it only cares that we pass our genes to our offspring and their offspring and so on. it doesnt care about our feelings! Other than the scary diseases, the first chapter was very interesting and I learned a lot of things ive never even heard of.
ReplyDelete