Haemochromatosis

Haemochromatosis is a genetic disorder. That is important, and it belongs at the beginning: your body stores more iron than it can break down, because an inherited predisposition has altered the regulatory mechanism. This excess iron deposits in organs — liver, heart, pancreas, joints — and can cause serious damage there. The medical treatment, above all the regular phlebotomy, is not an option but a necessity. That is beyond question.

And at the same time, a question arises that goes beyond genetics: What does it mean when a body holds on to everything? When it accumulates iron — the hardest, densest element in your blood — as though it were a safe that can no longer be opened? When it literally overfills itself with the substance that stands for strength?