Iron Deficiency
Iron is one of the essential minerals that is required by your body to function efficiently. If you don’t take enough iron from foods, had blood loss recently, exercised too hard, grew rapidly, have certain intestinal and stomach conditions and that your body is not able to absorb iron properly.. they may have all caused the iron deficiency or anemia.
Iron carries oxygen through your blood and provides you with energy you need throughout the day. Less oxygen transported means increased fatigue, weakness, twitches, pale looking skin, grumpiness, dizziness, breathlessness, hair loss, brittle nails, shortness of breath and malfunctioning immune system.
You can take iron from foods that are rich in iron or through iron supplements, but it is probably not a good idea to decide to take supplements on your own thinking that you have iron deficiency. You don’t want to overload on iron as this can be toxic and fatal. So go and see your doctor if you think you may have deficiency or anemia. Your iron levels can be checked by a simple blood test.
Insufficient dietary intake is probably the most common reason for iron deficiency. Although you can get iron from vegetarian food products, animal based iron is absorbed much better by your body. So if you are a vegetarian and not on a balanced diet or if you have been eating badly trying to lose weight or if you can’t afford to buy iron rich foods, you are likely to feel tired and lack energy to carry on through the day due to not consuming the right types of iron.
Athletes or those that exercise regularly and hard lose iron through sweating, pregnant women or women that are breastfeeding or going through a heavy menstrual blood loss require extra iron, people that lost blood recently because of a chronic condition, donating blood or taking certain medications are also in the high risk group.
It takes up to a year to refill on iron and using iron supplements without a blood test diagnosis will probably do you no good. You will have wasted time and money on supplements because of self-diagnosis. You may be very tired, pale and dizzy because of many other reasons other than anemia and you don’t want to be too late for treatment if you have a serious condition causing these symptoms.
The extra iron that happens to be in your body due to taking unnecessary iron supplements is not removed easily and they may be placed on your heart and liver and cause overloading of iron.
Vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, tummy pain and constipation are common side effects of iron supplements, particularly if taken on an empty stomach.
If your iron reserves are running low, your body will automatically seek iron from food sources such as red meat, liver (avoid it if you are pregnant), chicken, turkey, fish, dark green leafy vegetables- spinach and broccoli, nuts and seeds, raisins, iron fortified wholegrain cereals, pastas and breads.
Bear in mind that heme iron (animal based) is absorbed two to three times easier than non-heme iron (plant based). And consuming heme iron foods will improve the absorption from non-heme iron foods. Vitamin C will also enhance the iron absorption, while tea and coffee around meal time will hinder the absorption. But as long as you are on a balanced diet, eating a variety of foods from different food groups, iron absorption should not be a concern for you.
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