“In the United States, approximately 1.1 million people, have some form of cardiomyopathy.  In 2021, there were 14,770 hospitalizations for cardiomyopathy as the principal diagnosis, and it accounted for 23% of all heart failures.  Some people with cardiomyopathy don’t ever get symptoms. For others, symptoms appear as the condition becomes worse. ”

American Heart Association (2024-Statistics-At-A-Glance-final_2024.pdf)

Cardiomyopathy (kahr-dee-o-my-OP-uh-thee) is a disease of the heart muscle that makes it harder for your heart to pump blood to the rest of your body. Cardiomyopathy can lead to heart failure.

Symptoms

There might be no signs or symptoms in the early stages of cardiomyopathy. But as the condition advances, signs and symptoms usually appear, including:

• Breathlessness with exertion or even at rest
• Swelling of the legs, ankles and feet
• Bloating of the abdomen due to fluid buildup
• Cough while lying down
• Fatigue
• Heartbeats that feel rapid, pounding or fluttering
• Chest discomfort or pressure
• Dizziness, lightheadedness and fainting

Signs and symptoms tend to get worse unless treated. In some people, the condition worsens quickly; in others, it might not worsen for a long time.

When to see a doctor

See your doctor if you have one or more signs or symptoms associated with cardiomyopathy. Call 911 or your local emergency number if you have severe difficulty breathing, fainting or chest pain that lasts for more than a few minutes.

Because some types of cardiomyopathy can be hereditary, if you have it your doctor might advise that your family members be checked.

Causes

Often the cause of the cardiomyopathy is unknown. In some people, however, it’s the result of another condition (acquired) or passed on from a parent (inherited).

Contributing factors for acquired cardiomyopathy include:

• Long-term high blood pressure
• Heart tissue damage from a heart attack
• Chronic rapid heart rate
• Heart valve problems
• Metabolic disorders, such as obesity, thyroid disease or diabetes
• Nutritional deficiencies of essential vitamins or minerals, such as thiamin (vitamin B-1)
• Pregnancy complications
• Drinking too much alcohol over many years
• Use of cocaine, amphetamines or anabolic steroids
• Use of some chemotherapy drugs and radiation to treat cancer
• Certain infections, especially those that inflame the heart
• Iron buildup in your heart muscle (hemochromatosis)
• A condition that causes inflammation and can cause lumps of cells to grow in the heart and other organs (sarcoidosis)
• A disorder that causes the buildup of abnormal proteins (amyloidosis)
• Connective tissue disorders

“Health care providers can treat hemochromatosis safely and effectively by removing blood from the body on a regular basis. This is similar to donating blood. The process is known as phlebotomy.

The goal of phlebotomy is to lower your iron levels. The amount of blood removed and how often it’s removed depend on your age, your overall health and the severity of iron overload.”

MAYO CLINIC (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hemochromatosis/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20351448)

Diagnosis

It can be tricky for your doctor to diagnose hemochromatosis, because other conditions have the same symptoms. He might want you to get tested if:

• You’re having symptoms.
• You have one of the problems listed above.
• A family member has the disorder.

There are some other ways your doctor can figure out if you have it:

Checking your history. He’ll ask about your family and if anyone has hemochromatosis or signs of it. He might also ask about things like arthritis and liver disease, which might mean you or someone in your family has hemochromatosis but doesn’t know it.

Physical exam. Your doctor will examine your body. This involves using a stethoscope to listen to what’s going on inside. He might also tap on different parts of your body.

Blood tests. Two tests can give your doctor a clue about hemochromatosis:

• Transferrin saturation. This shows how much iron is stuck to transferrin, a protein that carries iron in your blood.
• Serum ferritin. This test measures the amount of ferritin, a protein that stores iron, in your blood. – If either of these show you have more iron than you should, your doctor might order a third test to see if you have a gene that causes hemochromatosis.
• Liver biopsy. Your doctor will take a small piece of your liver. He’ll look at it under a microscope to see if there’s any liver damage.
• MRI. This is a scan that uses magnets and radio waves to take a picture of your organs.
  

  Treatment

  If you have primary hemochromatosis, doctors treat it by removing blood from your body on a regular basis. It’s alot like donating blood. Your doctor will insert a needle into a vein in your arm or leg. The blood flows through the needle and into a tube that’s attached to a bag.

  • Initial treatment schedule. In the beginning, you may have a pint (about 470 milliliters) of blood taken once or twice a week — usually in a hospital or your provider’s office. While you lean back in a chair, a needle is inserted into a vein in your arm. The blood flows from the needle into a tube that’s attached to a blood bag. The process of removing blood is referred to as therapeutic blood removal.  In the Initial treatment. You’ll visit your doctor’s office or a hospital once or twice a week to have your blood drawn. You may have up to a pint taken at a time.
  • Maintenance treatment schedule. Once your iron levels go down, blood can be removed less often, typically every 2 to 3 months. Some people may maintain typical iron levels without having any blood taken. Some may need to have blood removed monthly. The schedule depends on how quickly iron builds up in your body.  So Maintenance treatment starts when once your blood iron levels have gone back to normal, you’ll still have to have to have blood taken, but not as often. It’ll be based on how fast iron builds back up in your body.

  The goal is to remove some of your blood so that your iron levels return to normal. This could take up to a year or more. Blood removal is divided into two parts: initial treatment and maintenance treatment.

   

   

“Hemochromatosis is a metabolic disorder in which your organs accumulate excess iron, leading to organ damage. Hereditary hemochromatosis affects one in 300 people in the United States.”

John Hopkins Medicine (https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/hemochromatosis)

Hemochromatosis is a disorder where too much iron builds up in your body. Sometimes it’s called “iron overload.”   Hemo meaning blood and chromatosis means pigmentation specifically : deposit of pigment in a normally unpigmented area or excessive pigmentation in a normally pigmented site.

Normally, your intestines absorb just the right amount of iron from the foods you eat. But in hemochromatosis, your body absorbs too much, and it has no way to get rid of it. So, your body stores the excess iron in your joints and in organs like your liver, heart, and pancreas. This damages them. If it’s not treated, hemochromatosis can make your organs stop working.

There are two types of this condition — primary and secondary.

Primary hemochromatosis is hereditary, meaning it runs in families. If you get two of the genes that cause it, one from your mother and one from your father, you’ll have a higher risk of getting the disorder.

Secondary hemochromatosis happens because of other conditions you have. These include:

• Certain kinds of anemia
• Liver disease
• Getting a lot of blood transfusions
• White people of northern European descent are more likely to get hereditary hemochromatosis. Men are 5 times more likely to get it than women.
  

  Symptoms

  Up to half of people who have hemochromatosis don’t get any symptoms. In men, symptoms tend to show up between ages 30 and 50. Women often don’t show signs of this condition until they’re over 50 or past menopause. That may be because they lose iron when they get their periods and give birth.

  Symptoms of hemochromatosis include:

  • Pain in your joints, especially your knuckles
  • Feeling tired
  • Unexplained weight loss
  • Skin that has a bronze or gray color – pigmentation
  • Pain in your belly
  • Loss of sex drive
  • Loss of body hair
  • Heart flutter
  • Foggy memory

  Sometimes people don’t get any symptoms of hemochromatosis until other problems arise. These may include:

  • Liver
  • Diabetes
  • Abnormal heartbeat
  • Arthritis
  • Erectile dysfunction (difficulty having a erection)

  If you take a lot of vitamin C or eat a lot of foods that contain it, you can make hemochromatosis worse. That’s because vitamin C helps your body absorb iron from food.

  White people of northern European descent are more likely to get hereditary hemochromatosis. Men are 5 times more likely to get it than women.

   

“As advances in CF knowledge and care are potentially able to prolong the life expectancy of many patients, it’s important to keep in mind the complications—beyond lung disease—that will develop and progress as patients age.^1,9-11 Monitoring for these complications can help detect their emergence and progression, which can ensure earlier intervention; this has been associated with better outcomes in patients.

Knowing CF affects the lungs this is how it happens:

Early as in utero and into infancy, inflammation may occur, with the possibility of mucus plugging and bronchiectasis.

Inflammation, lung structure and lung function may progress throughout childhood.

Childhood, adolescence and early adulthood what happens is lower airway inflammation and worsening airway abnormalities including established bronchiectasis may occur, driven by the inflammation in the lungs.

In Adulthood and Aging what happens is airway destruction and complications, including bacterial infections, bronchiectasis with hemoptysis, and pneumothorax, may occur and may lead to progressive respiratory failure, often requiring lung transplant.”

CF Source (Multi-Organ Disease Progression in Cystic Fibrosis (CF)

“The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is the world’s leader in the search for a cure for CF and supports a broad range of research initiatives to tackle the disease from all angles.

Cystic fibrosis is genetic disease that affects the lungs, pancreas, and other organs. It is progressive, meaning that it gets worse over time.

There are close to 40,000 children and adults living with cystic fibrosis in the United States and an estimated 105,000 people have been diagnosed with CF across 94 countries. CF can affect people of every racial and ethnic group.

There are many things that are misconceptions about CF.

In people with CF, mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene cause the CFTR protein to not function properly. When the protein is not working correctly, it’s unable to help move chloride — a part of salt — to the cell surface. Without the chloride to attract water to the cell surface, the mucus in various organs becomes thick and sticky.

CF affects multiple organs in the body.”

The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (About Cystic Fibrosis | Cystic Fibrosis Foundation)

“Drinking water does more than just quench your thirst. It’s essential to keeping your body functioning properly and feeling healthy.

Nearly all of your body’s major systems depend on water to function and survive. With water making up about 60% of your body weight, it’s no surprise what staying hydrated can do for you.

Some ways the water works in our bodies is the following:

• Regulates body temperature
• Moistens tissues in the eyes, nose, mouth and other areas
• Protects body organs and tissues
• Carries nutrients and oxygen to cells.”

MAYO CLINIC (Water: Essential for your body – Mayo Clinic Health System)