Iron Levels

This is a short and simple post to try and raise awareness on ourselves and our intake of iron. So a year and a half ago I was quite poorly and like tired, pale, had some odd tastes with food and I had heart palpitations and my G.P. ran some tests and eventually 2 blood tests and when they came back they told me I was dangerously close to becoming anaemic, basically I had low levels of iron in my system.

Iron is a mineral which the body needs for growth and development. Your body uses iron to make haemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells which carries oxygen around the body and needs some for some hormones. You can become anaemic if you don't get enough into your body. Iron deficiency anaemia is caused by lack of iron, often because of blood loss or pregnancy. I am a blood donor and because of the issues and low iron levels I was not allowed to donate blood until my issue was fixed. I was prescribed Iron tablets for 3 months and told to just up my iron intake with certain foods and after 6 months, I had new tests done and my levels were fine again.

The amount of iron you need is different depending on your age and gender. The recommended levels are: 8.7mg a day for men over 18, 14.8mg a day for women aged 19 to 50 & 8.7mg a day for women over 50.

How can you tell if your iron levels are low?

There are lots of symptoms for iron deficiency and the following are the four most common signs: tiredness and lack of energy, pale skin, noticeable heartbeats (heart palpitations) & shortness of breath. Other symptoms include: headaches, hearing ringing, buzzing or hissing noises inside your head, food tasting strange, feeling itchy, a sore tongue, hair loss, wanting to eat non-food items, such as paper or ice, finding it hard to swallow, painful open sores in the corners of your mouth, spoon-shaped nails & restless legs syndrome.

The NHS recommends that you eat more greens or meat or cereal high in iron and drink more orange juice and of course if you are struggling your GP may refer you to a specialist dietitian and prescribe you iron tablets.

That's all we got time for this week Basil, stay shiny and keep an eye on your Iron :)

Thanks for reading. Share to make others aware.