Iron and heart disease: the epidemiologic data.

There has developed a general theory of chronic and degenerative disease causation--the Oxidative Stress Theory. This theory states that the production of tissue-damaging free radicals is an essential component in the pathogenesis of chronic diseases and that iron may help to catalyze the reactions producing free radicals. As a result, it has been suggested that the risk of coronary heart disease increases with increasing body iron stores. In support of that hypothesis, a prospective epidemiologic study of heart disease in Finnish men found that the risk of heart attack increased with increasing levels of serum ferritin. However, the vast majority of the epidemiologic data, including results from prospective, cross-sectional, and case-control and autopsy studies, published since that initial study have failed to support the original hypothesis that high body iron stores increase the risk of coronary heart disease.