Hemochromatosis and diabetes mellitus

Iron storage in hemochromatosis affects not only the liver, but many other organs as well. One of the organs affected is the pancreas, which produces the hormone insulin. Insulin is essential for sugar metabolism.

The pancreas is damaged by the storage of iron, which can reduce or even stop the production of insulin. If this is the case, it is known as “bronze diabetes“, a form of diabetes mellitus (“diabetes”) in which insulin must be replaced in order to maintain sugar metabolism. Diabetes mellitus occurs in hemochromatosis patients in up to 70% of cases. You are not sure whether you might also be affected by this accompanying disease?

Hemochromatosis and Polyneuropathy

Polyneuropathy describes a damage of the nerves, in which several nerves (mostly of legs and/or arms) are affected. It is not one of the typical and well-studied side effects of hemochromatosis. There are only a few studies with small patient numbers on this topic.There are studies that suspect a connection between hemochromatosis and polyneuropathy, but also studies that describe a protective effect of hemochromatosis on the development of polyneuropathy under therapy with HIV drugs. In any case, it is certain that advanced hemochromatosis and diabetes mellitus can lead to diabetic polyneuropathy.

Hemochromatosis and dark circles

The skin under the eyes is very well supplied with blood, since many small blood vessels are involved in the supply. In addition, this region of the body has hardly any subcutaneous fatty tissue and is so thin that these blood vessels can easily shimmer through here. If there is an iron deficiency, the oxygen content in the blood can drop due to the resulting anemia, making the blood appear darker and then appear as a ring around the eyes through the thin skin under the eye. However, dark circles under the eyes are not a typical symptom of hemochromatosis, but can occur together with other symptoms (e.g. tiredness) in iron deficiency due to too many bloodletting.