Interesting! Particularly the linked nature.com article. Thanks for pointing it out.

I can't help but wonder if a lot of this comes down to some kind of dyslipidemia. Hemochromatosis is somewhat associated with hypertriglyceridemia.

I've looked through the article (and the ones it links) and see no indication of *when* those individuals showed high iron. There are some interesting correlations between high iron and metabolic syndrome.

Disclaimer1: I'm trying to wrap my head around the current state of our understanding of lipid metabolism - and there seems to be an under recognition of the RBC (one of the two places where most iron goes) as lipid transport - so this is likely me having a hammer and seeing everything as nails.

Disclaimer2: Not a bio guy, but a digital native trying to wade in (and if I'd known it was this interesting, I'd have picked a different career).

BTW/FWIW as a data/stat guy I can tell you that the use of Cox is sound.