Originally posted by OrchidJulie HH turns out to be the most common genetic defect in Caucasians of northern European (read Nordic and Celtic) heritage. Something like 1 in 12 people of that ancestry carries one copy of the mutation. (who knew?!) Not everyone who inherits a copy from each parent will go on to develop HH (nobody knows exactly why), but most folks homozygous for it (one mutant gene from each parent) do, eventually develop it. Typically not diagnosed until middle age or later, early symptoms are vague. Caught early and treated (the fancy name for the dates with vampires is "therapeutic phlebotomy"), prognosis is good. <whew>
And the FDA allows HH blood donations to be used for transfusions, so there will be plenty for everybody...
I hope I don't develop it, then. I gave up being a blood donor due to my borderline low blood values - it's no fun when the vampires don't want your blood more than half the time! I'm certainly no doc - I never even understood how my my blood values could be too low (for donating) when, at the same time, they said my iron levels were good...
Which means I can't buy a bloody K-3 anytime soon, right?