Many years ago, when vitamin supplements weren't as easily accessible as they are today, a television commercial trumpeted the problem of "iron-poor blood." This commercial never mentioned the disorder by name, but it was clear, they were talking about anemia.
Anemia is a condition in which the level of red blood cells dips too low to adequately transport oxygen to all tissues of your body. When there are parts of your body that are deprived of oxygen, you feel tired.
There are many forms of anemia, many of which involve a deficiency of some form of vitamin – usually a member of the B-complex. It could be B-12 or folic acid. Another common form of anemia is the iron deficient variety.
Other than fatigue, symptoms of this disorder include a pale skin tone, loss of appetite, a sore mouth and tongue as well as diarrhea. Additionally, if you experience a numbness of tingling sensation in your hands and feet, you may also have anemia.
An iron deficiency, by far, is the most common cause of anemia. One study suggests that nearly 60 percent of young women may not have enough iron in their systems. Most of those, though, do not exhibit any symptoms of anemia.
And there's good reason for this. Women of childbearing years lose up to 2.5 mg of iron each month because of their menstrual cycles. Many of these "iron poor" females, moreover, don't eat enough of the foods that would replenish that supply of iron.
The official U.S. government estimate of iron consumption for women between the ages of 18 and 24 is 18 mg. The average female, by the way, receives less than 11 mg.
Iron is essential for the production of red blood cells. If your system doesn't have enough, it'll produce less hemoglobin, the protein in the red blood cells that transports the oxygen from the lungs and then releases it into the tissues when the oxygen is low.
Your body stores iron principally in the hemoglobin. Each 100 ml of healthy blood contains about 15 grams of hemoglobin. Each gram of hemoglobin in turn contains about 3.4 mg of iron.
If you're eating a healthy diet, you're receiving about 20 mg of iron daily. Of this, approximately only 10 percent of this 20 mg actually gets absorbed into the body. In those individuals who do have iron-deficiency anemia, though, this amount of the nutrient is not nearly enough. These individuals need a rapid correction in the amount of hemoglobin their blood has
