Q: My mother is 68 years old and has excessive iron in her blood. She underwent hysterectomy 2 years ago. What can be done to reduce her high iron level? Could you provide some iron absorption inhibitors?

A:Excess iron in blood is mainly due to repeated blood transfusion. This happens in cases of thalassaemia and other blood transfusion dependent anaemia. There are some drugs available in market viz - injection desferral, tablet kelfer, desirox and asunara to reduce iron over load. For your mother, we should check the cause of iron overload. You should get serum ferritin test done before you actually think any treatment option and then consult a physician or haematologist, whether she needs any therapy or not. Do not start any treatment yourself.