ABSTRACT
The core hypothesis of the theory is that iron depletion protects against ischemic heart disease (IHD). The hypothesis implies that ferritin is a risk factor for IHD but does not precisely define the epidemiological behavior of ferritin as a risk factor. Traditional risk factors do not account for the disease increase since they are not changed by simple premenopausal hysterectomy. The match between heart disease incidence and ferritin curves as a function of age in both men and women was seen as just too close to be a product of chance. A criticism that has often been made against this theory is that there is no connection between the cardiomyopathy of iron overload and IHD. Iron-binding capacity in plasma greatly exceeds the plasma iron concentration in normal iron replete subjects. A related criticism is that massive iron overload damages the heart, but there is no evidence that the amounts of iron observed in normal iron replete subjects are harmful.
