We already knew that hemochromatosis is the most common genetic disease in the western world. And yet, researchers at the University of Exeter (Great Britain) suggest that the disease could affect up to 20 times more people than previously imagined. “The disease was thought to develop only between the ages of 40 and 60 in carriers defective genes. But that’s simply because the studies didn’t include enough older people “ underlines Professor David Melzer, professor of epidemiology at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Exeter and lead author of the study.
The disease also affects those over 60
For this study, which has just been published in the British medical journal, Prof. Melze and his team conducted a cohort study with more than 451,000 volunteers of European origin aged 40 to 70 who were followed for an average of 7 years. “One of the surprises of our study was the discovery of a higher incidence of hemochromatosis in the 60 to 70 age group “ explains the doctor on the BMJ blog.
This study also found that the disease quadruples the risk of liver disease and double the risk of arthritis.
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