Mitochondrial Damage - New England Journal of Medicine

Hi Andy & Others,

You may have already seen or commented on this but I wanted to pass it along and get your feedback.

http://blogs.nejm.org/now/index.php/microcytosis/2011/08/19/

Could you interpret this as that the higher your hemoglobin, which looks good & healthy to your physician, but would mean more unpaired globin chains you have and potentially more symptoms & damage to your mitchondria by those unpaired chains?

Thanks

I would expect that the amount of unmatched globins chains would be lower with a higher Hb level, as the higher level is indicative of a higher matching rate. However, since we do occasionally hear from those with normal Hb levels but also do exhibit some symptoms of thal minor, I would say that even at normal Hb levels, there are unmatched chains which play a role in creating symptoms.

Thanks Andy for your quick reply.

What are you thoughts in terms of this article stating that a common feature of Thalassemia is mitochondria dysfunction? Is this more in terms of Thal Major? Is this something new or do I have alot more to catch up on?

I guess in my situation I was really excited to find this article since few years back I paid for some private tests that showed among a few other things but mostly my mitochondrial function was poor. But my general MD could not really interpret these results.
As well, the only thing that has helped are Meyers IV and I see that the treatment for Mitochondrial dysfunction are IV cocktails.
Coincidence or does this maybe fit together.

I can't even explain how good I felt after the first few IVs, haven't felt that good since I was a teenager.