Dumping Iron: How to Ditch This Secret Killer and Reclaim Your Health is a game-changer in health and fitness. The accumulation of excess iron in the body, a condition that affects perhaps the majority of adults, leads to much higher risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, brain diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and shorter lifespan.
Dumping Iron shows how to measure your iron levels, what the test numbers mean, and how to go about lowering iron if necessary.
Humans are adapted to a low-iron environment, so once iron is in our bodies, it virtually never goes away. Our new, high-iron environment leads to iron accumulation, and to ill health and early death.
Iron is the secret killer that no one is telling you about. Finally, in Dumping Iron, the scientific and medical data that indicts iron is assembled in one place.
What the experts say about Dumping Iron:
"Dumping Iron by P. D. Mangan is a must read by anybody interested in maintaining optimal health, including those in the medical field. Iron overload is an exceedingly common malady in the population and it is easily diagnosed, but it is under-addressed. It leads to heart disease, diabetes, cancer and numerous other chronic and debilitating illnesses. The good news is that iron excess can be prevented and readily treated, which results in a decreased risk of many diseases and improvement in overall health and vitality. Dumping Iron clearly tells us how to achieve these goals." - Luca Mascitelli, M.D., Lt. Colonel, Italian Army, and author of numerous scientific papers on iron and health.
"In Dumping Iron, Dennis Mangan has provided the reader access to a massive scientific data pool linking body iron overload to major diseases of mankind... I submit that Dumping Iron should be required reading in science and nutrition for high school and above. The ultimate triumph of Dumping Iron might be an informed public that will increasingly access ferritin test screening, and health care providers better prepared to interpret tests of iron status, particularly the ferritin level. Acknowledgment of risks of iron overload and proper product labeling might lead to reduced public iron intoxication and improved population health to a degree that would be no less than monumental!" - Leo Zacharski, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College. Dr. Zacharski has written extensively on the connection between iron and disease, and has conducted clinical trials of lowering iron.
"Iron has been compared to fire. A small amount of fire is quite useful in our stoves and furnaces. But when fire is ravaging the contents and walls of our home... BEWARE. In this informative book, Dennis Mangan makes clear the devastation that can be caused by excessive/misplaced iron in the tissues and walls of our bodies. We learn that for essentially all diseases - infections, cancers, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, gout, osteoporosis, cardiovascular ills, and more - that the iron burden is a dangerous risk factor. But equally important, the author describes a variety of well tested methods that are readily available to neutralize the iron peril. Adoption of even a few of these methods can remarkably decrease iron-catalyzed disease episodes, enhance well being, and, not least, increase longevity." - E. D. Weinberg, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Biology at Indiana University, and the author of over 140 scientific papers, many of them on the role of iron in disease.
Dennis Mangan's revolutionary new book Dumping Iron: How to Ditch This Secret Killer and Reclaim Your Health is a must read even for the most informed Health and Fitness professional. - Jay Campbell, author of The Definitive TRT MANual
Dumping Iron's thesis is that iron is a major factor in the aging process and contributes to heart disease, cancer, and numerous other maladies. It's an intriguing theory, and the author has provided us with convincing scientific evidence for it. It makes sense. Frequent blood donors are healthier than infrequent donors, people with higher ferritin levels are prone to heart attacks, women have lower levels of iron in their blood and live longer, and so forth. If I had to criticize this book, I'd say that Mangan goes way too far with his thesis. For instance, he wonders if the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet are entirely due to it's low iron content. He has no direct evidence that this is the ONLY cause, or for many similar claims, and a book advancing an unorthodox medical theory should be free of such rampant speculation.
The takeaway of this book is: get your iron levels tested, and donate blood if they're high. That's all you really need to know, and you don't need to pay $8 to learn it. But if you want an introduction to the science behind it this is definitely worth picking up.
Dennis Mangan sure has changed a lot over the years. I remember his old blog, which seems to be off-line these days, which dealt mainly in current affairs relating to culture and politics. Clearly, Mangan has chosen a different direction and we must all respect that. But even then, Mangan blogged quite a bit about food, health and (anti)aging remedies. It was Mangan who once pointed me to Gary Taubes’ excellent “Good Calories, Bad Calories” and Michael Maes’ “From Freud to Omega-3” – for which I will forever be grateful.
Over the years I’ve learnt a lot about health, simply by reading blogs and books; and not by following the mainstream media or health expert recommendations. From the low-carb/paleo diet to fasting to calisthenics to powerlifting to fish oil to good sleep – all these thing matter. These things do not matter in equal amounts, but surely they do all matter – and if you neglect one, it will hurt you in the long run, at least work against you. Mangan adds a new element to watch for optimal health: iron. In “dumping iron”, Mangan argues (high) iron levels to be related to a whole host of chronic diseases, conditions and health risks. The literature is actually quite extensive on this, I, for sure, didn’t know this. Men over 30 should absolutely have their iron levels checked, especially when they eat a lot of iron-rich foods. The iron toxicity hypothesis seeks to explain the difference in life expectancy between men and women. Women suffer less of a risk from iron because women have periods and lose a lot of blood during pregnancy – men, of course, do not.
If your iron levels are too high -- and Mangan argues that the medical establishment has set the normal levels way too high; “normal” is often already “too high” health wise – you need to get them down. Mangan argues the following strategy; first get your ferritin levels checked before you do anything, then (if your levels are too high), there are two ways to combat high iron levels: 1) bloodletting (say, donating blood) and 2) supplements (like IP6) or a diet rich in foods which decrease iron-absorption (stuff like black tea, coffee and red wine). After a year or so, you need to re-check your ferritin levels to see if the intervention worked. Recently, I noticed through a 23andme.com gene check that I had a gene predicting people for increased risk of hemochromatosis (unhealthy iron accumulation), so I was thinking about checking my ferritin regardless of this book. I mention this because, while Mangan mentions hemochromatosis briefly, he didn’t go into a little more. I just wanted to add this: if your iron levels are very high, I’d definitely recommend you check yourself for hemochromatosis also.
This book is short, but a very valuable read. Well done, Dennis.
Iron levels are best measured by measuring ferritin. The high end of the range is over 20x more than the low end.ferritin is the only enzyme, hormone or chemical with a range so large. Most substances don't have a high end more than 3x the low.
People within the normal range develop health issues consistent with those who are above the normal range. Lower down the on the range and the incidence of disease lessens, keep going down and it lessens even more until the range of about 2x the low end is reached. For ferritin the author states no studies demonstrate what exactly the healthy range is, but he suggests something like 30-80mg/dl.
Iron rusts or oxidizes easily even in the body. This causes damage to other body parts. The higher the level of iron the more the damage. As you age iron accumulates in soft tissues and causes damage.
“Iron has been compared to fire. A small amount of fire is quite useful in our stoves and furnaces. But when fire is ravaging the contents and walls of our homes… BEWARE. In this informative book, Dennis Mangan makes clear the devastation that can be caused by excessive/misplaced iron in the tissues and walls of our bodies. We learn that for essentially all diseases – infections, cancers, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes, gout, osteoporosis, cardiovascular ills, and more – that the iron burden is a dangerous risk factor.”
Excerpt From: P. D. Mangan. “Dumping Iron: How to Ditch This Secret Killer and Reclaim Your Health.” iBooks.
Reading this is like finding yourself in a Bizarro World, where the Daily Mail, instead of claiming that everything causes cancer - claims that iron is to blame for just about every health problem. I don't think I'm exaggerating, either. Diabetes, cancer, wrinkles, gray hair, short pet lifespans, kidney failure, etc, etc. Mangan definitely has backing for his claims, even if some of them are speculative, but I think a lot of that has the opposite causation - "metabolic syndrome, therefore iron overload", rather than "iron overload, therefore metabolic syndrome".
Big props for keeping the book short, and providing easy to check citations.
A deep dive into the role of iron in disease and death.
Required reading for every man, post-menopausal woman, and cat and dog.
Cancer feeds on iron; bacteria stuffs its face with it; iron sticks in the brain, causing Parkinson's disease and the ego-death of Alzheimer's; iron blows up in your skin and hair, causing greyness and wrinkles; it triggers heart attacks as sure as metals in microwaves trigger fire; we could go on and on.
The author did.
With the deftness of a surgeon, Mangan laid out the case against iron with quick, sure, faultless prose. It became very clear very quickly that iron overload will make you sick, and that a dearth of it will bring eternal life.
Almost.
If only.
Old people, the ones that don't die too young, anyways, don't have much iron in their blood. For one reason or another, they get rid of it. Blood donations and, more commonly, iron chelators, such as green tea among the Japanese, and olive oil and red wine and bitter greens among Mediterraneans, ensure they keep their iron levels low.
Death needs iron for his scythe.
Don't give it to him.
Fertile women, who practice involuntary bloodletting, die less eagerly than post-menopausal women and all men. They don't have as many heart diseases, cancers, or infections, because they bleed iron every calendar month and starve those monsters of their food. This is as clear a correlation as you could hope to get.
Men who donate blood die less often than those who don't.
Be selfish, donate blood.
Dump iron, dunk on death.
Immediately after finishing this book, I booked an appointment at my local blood bank. I gave blood, gave life, and got life in return.
I have Candida which I discovered today feeds on iron. My next step is to get ferritin and hemoglobin blood tests. If my ferritin levels are above the recommended 50-70 ng/ml range, it will be time to donate blood. You can drop ferritin levels by 30-50 ng/ml per blood donation, so my initial ferritin test result will tell me how many donations I'll need before I test ferritin again.
This process may take a few months, but it's affordable, low risk, and may make my candida easier to manage.
An easy and compelling read on iron toxicity. This book is both brief and thorough, with sources cited and solutions included making it a great use of your time.
Stop eating fortified/enriched flour/grain products and donate blood yearly. It’s that simple.
Must read book for anyone who wants to live longer and healthier!
Found this book after looking for some help and guidance on lowering iron levels from a second ferritin test that my doctor ordered for me and this was just what I was looking for! This books provides great information about what iron is and the impacts both of low and high iron levels in the blood, it is an eye opening reading that should be broadcasted more and more to everyone, specially within the US given the iron enhanced food law that I was not aware the FDA has mandated. I learned a lot and also felt empowered to take control of my health in order to live a healthier and longer life for me and my family to enjoy! The author provides great summary of his writing as well as good data for his research and resources which are impossible to refute!
One of the best books I've ever read. The evidence for high iron being a driver of chronic disease was very compelling.
I liked the nuance the author presented saying you can do everything right for your health and high iron can sabotage all your work. But if you get your iron levels correct without doing the rest of the important things for health you will not be healthy.
Reducing iron makes sense to me. I also think there can be lifestyles and health conditions that lead to high iron. It's always important to keep in mind seeking the root cause of any health problems.
Thank you for writing this book! I️ am constantly reading about health and wellness. I’ve had some major health challenges and I’m concerned about all the little aging symptoms that are creeping up on me. I️ got some answers in this book that I️ don’t think I️ will find in other resources. Looking forward to working on iron levels and changing my diet. The solutions are easy, make sense, and will be easy to self monitor.
After receiving a routine blood panel, my Ferritin level was 986. My doctor is blaming the elevated level on drinking, despite my liver, blood iron and kidney numbers being completely in line. I'm 54 and yes I drink, but after receiving this news, I immediately sought out information on how to lower it. This landed me on this book. I'm taking this information seriously and it does make sense. Mangan is correct (in my experience) that doctors don't care/understand what role Ferritin plays in the human body. I feel fine. They tested me for Hemochromatosis and that is negative. I immediately stopped drinking, booked a power red (double pull) blood donation at the American Red Cross. I then started watching my diet and one month later I booked a Ferritin test at labcorp online. $59 bucks later and a simple blood test, I'm now at 639. Still way to high, but I want this excess out of my body! I can't donate again for a few months, and I understand this will take time. I've mentioned this information to numerous people and almost everyone thinks its bunk, which is fine. My doctor was "concerned" and I appreciate he pulled the Ferritin because it exposed the only out of line panel I had! I feel there is no harm in dropping it down to normal levels so that is my goal. Giving blood is not an issue for me, but I do enjoy a glass of wine and my health is important to me. If any of this rings true for you, this book is a must read.
Absolute banger. A must read for all men, and post-menopausal women. And... women who have men in their life that they love and want to preserve. So that's basically everyone.
Started donating blood regularly as a result. Slightly uncomfortable, but not painful, and you get extra karma points after - what's not to like about that!
Oh yeah - just as to avoid this review being entirely without substance. The gist of this book is that in men and post-menopausal women, iron accumulates over time, and causes cellular damage via free radicals.
We can measure the iron accumulation via a protein called ferritin, which the body uses to bind up and keep "safe" excess iron.
Problem is, reference ranges for ferritin go up too high. Data suggests we need ferritin <100 ng/ml.
So, how do we fix this?
Well, 1) you can test your ferritin level.
2) If it's above 100, you can donate blood, which reduces iron.
3) Re-test after a donation or two, and see how close to the target goal you are.
Iron is an essential nutrient, and if you have too much, it kills you. When was the last time anyone checked yours? I had mine checked in mid August, and it came in at 550, just a little over the high normal of 500. Now the normal is reduced to 300. Optimum is less than 100. What you know or know that you don't know is never a serious problem. What you don't know, that you don't know bites you almost every time. Just had another test and I'm at 450. What I am doing is working. Long way to go to get to 100. Years or work.
P.D. Mangan clearly exposes the case against excessive iron and its yet unknown (or uncared for) role on a vast number of modern maladies, taking all the trouble of munching the relevant scientifc articles in a friendly and jargon-free manner for the general public. After reading it, you will promptly want to donate blood as much as possible!
This is an eye-opening book even for someone like me who is into health and fitness. I will be checking my ferritin levels and making sure they stay low by using the advice in this book.
This was a very quick read and very enlightening. Makes a great deal of sense to me. It seems very logical to deal with this and monitor. A quick and straight forward read.