Nutrition Videos

Iron is necessary for the production of hemoglobin, which is the protein inside red cells and transfers oxygen to the body cells. If you're iron-deficient, the body is not able to produce enough hemoglobin, which leads to anemia. Although anemia may be caused by various things, iron deficiency is the most common type of anemia. How can you suspect if the iron reserves in your body are low? Today we're seeing which symptoms indicate low iron reserves in the body. Fatigue. Tiredness or fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of low iron reserves in the body, either they're related to anemia or not. Besides hemoglobin, iron participates in the energy production inside the cells with a mechanism that transforms fat into energy. When the iron reserves in the body are low, this mechanism is less effective, and fatigue occurs as a result of that. Of course, fatigue may be cause by dozens of things, but iron deficiency is one of the most common. It certainly is the most easily reversible. For example, depression causes fatigue too, but this is very hard to reverse. Pale skin. Since hemoglobin is red, people with low iron reserves in their body and, by extension, low levels of hemoglobin in their blood have more pale skin than expected. Of course, to detect that, you should be very trained and in a way look for this symptom in someone's skin. Besides the skin, the face, eyes, gums and nails are also more pale. Difficulty breathing. If it seems harder for you to breath than expected, this may be a symptom of low iron reserves in the body. When iron in the body is low and, by extension, hemoglobin is low too, the body has to try harder in order to transfer oxygen to the muscles, which may be manifested as difficulty breathing. Headaches. It hasn't been made scientifically clear yet why people with low iron have headaches. However, it's clear that people with low iron have headaches more often than people with normal levels of iron in their body. Let me stress that, like fatigue, there are a lot of causes for headache. But iron deficiency is one of the common causes and as I said earlier, it's easily reversible too. Heart fluttering. What is clinically called heart palpitations, which in practice means noticing our heartbeat, which we normally don't, is a common sign of anemia due to iron deficiency. The reason for this is not very clear here either, but we consider possible that because the heart has to work harder due to anemia, this leads to premature ventricular contractions and arrhythmia that are noticeable. Dry skin and hair loss. The skin that is evidently not in a good condition, and hair loss may be caused by iron deficiency. This is a good scenario too, because it's easy to fix. Hair loss may be caused by a lot of factors, but iron deficiency is one of the most common ones. And of course, one of the easiest to reverse. Nails that break easily. Another problem that may occur in people with low iron is noticing that their nails break more easily. Restless legs. Some people move their feet very much at night, which obstructs them from having a good sleep. Sometimes, this may be caused by the restless leg syndrome. Studies have shown that people with iron deficiency suffer from this syndrome more often. Mouth ulcers. Iron deficiency is associated with mouth ulcers, in general, with wounds in the mouth and the tongue, difficult healing of wounds in this area, and sometimes swelling of the tongue and gums. Cold hands and feet. Many people naturally have cold hands and feet. But in some cases, this is caused by iron deficiency. These are the most common symptoms of people with low iron reserves in their body. If you suffer from one or more of these symptoms, you should go to your doctor and ask for a ferritin test. Ferritin is a protein that stores iron in the body and a very reliable way to find out if the iron stored in our body is sufficient. If you know that the iron reserves in your body are not sufficient, you should definitely watch the video I posted a few months ago, on my right, which shows which foods block or support iron absorption. In this video, you'll see which foods you can eat for greater iron absorption, and which foods block iron absorption when you eat them with iron supplements or foods rich in iron. If you're still watching, this subject seems to interest you, so you should definitely watch it. Thank you!