A healthy diet is the key to getting the iron you need

An article in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) focuses on what happens to iron stores in the body after donating blood. As many as one-third of regular blood donors have too little iron in their bloodstreams. According to the article, it can take up to six months to replenish the body’s iron after donating a unit of blood—significantly longer than the recommended 8-week waiting period between deposits at the blood bank. The article made me wonder about the basics of iron health. How much of this stuff do we need? How do we get it? If you always feel pooped, how likely is “iron poor blood” to blame? Iron stores One-quarter of the world’s population is anemic, meaning they don’t get enough iron to produce the red blood cells and oxygen-carrying hemoglobin needed to nourish their myriad cells. In developed nations like the United States, iron-poor blood is uncommon. Anemia attributable to iron deficiency affects perhaps 1% to 2% of American adults. “Because our country usually has a problem of eating too much, most adults meet the minimum requirements for iron intake,” says nutrition researcher Howard Sesso, an associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard Medical School. In the United States, blood loss is the main cause of iron deficiency and anemia. Among women, heavy menstrual periods and childbirth account for this. Among those age 65 and older, the causes of iron deficiency and anemia are like...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Healthy Eating hemoglobin iron vitamins Source Type: news