I confess I was a chemistry nerd ‘way back when’, but my skill for stoichiometric calculations had sadly slipped by the time my kids needed help with high-school science & now my son, who’s about to graduate from chemical engineering, is my ‘chem-friend’ 🙄🧐 I suspect he feels FB messenger wasn’t intended for such use – or at least there should be some veneer of, ‘Hi darling how are you?’ before…’Need to talk through these pharmacokinetic datasets’ However, the one equation that was like turning a light on in my brain & therefore never forgotten was the Fenton reaction – basically metals’ MO for messing with our biology, especially iron. Turns out – it’s the most essential and helpful in understanding health & disease:
Endometriosis
IBD
Neurogenerative disorders: MS, PD, Alzheimer’s
Higher than healthy GGT
Impaired COMT or catechol excess for other reasons
Cardiovascular disease & Diabetes
Vitiligo
Both the Big Cs
Heavy metal burden
Iron dysregulation (Obesity, HFE mutations, Thalassaemia) & Excess (IV or oral over-treatment etc)
(almost) All roads lead to radicals & reactive species…if you follow the Fenton pathway & iron leads us down this path more often than any other metal. Certainly sometimes for good: like protecting us against pathogens and destroying dodgy cells, but when it gets out of hand, a key pathophysiological process in a long list of disease. So understanding how to recognise patients prone to dysregulation of this mineral, avoiding iron over-treatment at all costs (I am seeing incorrect and excessive use of IV iron in many patients make it stop!) and identifying means to contain and control its movement, are important. Oh and in case the Fenton has faded in memory, it goes a little something like this:
