Too Much Iron

I am 82 years old and in pretty good health for my age. However, I had been feeling very tired and couldn't figure out why, so during one of my examinations I mentioned to my Dr and he sent me for a blood test. He called me with the results and said everything was ok except my iron was very high and asked if I had been taking any iron pills. I told him no, and he said he was going to send me for a "genetic" blood test. I had neve had that before and he told me he wanted to check something out. I went for the test and suggested I see a Dr. P who deals in blood issues. I went to see him and found out, to my surprise, I had hemochrometosis. I happen to be of scottish decent and he told me high iron was prevelent in anyone born in Northern Europe. Testing further,, he found out my mom and dad must have had it as well and I was the one who developed the high iron. Dr. P told me I was very fortunate not to have developed problems with my liver, pancreas and other issues that comes from having hemochromotsis. He asked a lot of questions because he didn't understand why at my age didn't have more health problems. When I told him I used to give blood until the "mad cow disease" started and I couldn't give blood because I traveled overseas he told me that's why I never had any medical issues, because giving blood was the only way to keep the iron under control, and the reason it got so high was due to not being allowed to donate. for almost 10 years. Now I am allowed to donate blood and my numbers have fallen drastically. Had Dr. C not ordered the genetic blood test I would never had known, and could have wound up with a debilitating disease.