Iron Deficiency Anemia

by Sammy
(Newcastle, NSW)

I had my child on september 2009. Ever since then I have been feeling very fatigued & had no energy, also been having heart palpitations & chest pain & dizziness...

Only recently I have found out I have iron defficiency anemia. I've been taken iron supplements, but still not feeling better. I was just wondering if there is any other way I could contribute to bringing my iron levels up? Is there some sort of injection the doctor could give me?

-Sammy

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Hey Sammy,

I'm sorry you've been feeling so poorly. The only safe way to increase your iron uptake is to remain on iron supplements. There's no shot you can take (except in extreme cases, which is very controversial). Blood transfusions are often done in a clinical setting if the hematocrit drops below 25...something that rarely happens in plane 'ole iron deficiency anemia.

Luckily for you, iron supplements aren't the end of the line. Your body has its own built-in mechanisms to increase iron uptake from the GI tract. One such way is weight-bearing exercise. Although it won't happen immediately, it has been shown to increase iron uptake from the gut.

How, you ask?

Lifting weights adds stress to your bones. Inside your long bones, the bone marrow will begin increasing red blood cell production (which requires iron for hemoglobin) to compensate for the added stress. Certain chemicals are released from the bone marrow which act on the GI tract to increase iron uptake (this provides more iron for the added red blood cell volume).

This is not some hokey proposition...this is actually what we prescribe patients to do. We ask them to increase their exercise, eat a healthy diet and take their iron supplements daily (without overdoing it).

It's important to remember that your body has no good way of GETTING RID of iron. In other words, too much iron can build up in the heart, liver, pancreas and pituitary gland leading to all kinds of problems, such as cirrhosis, "bronze" diabetes, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and subsequent heart failure. This array of problems constitutes "hemochromatosis", a disease of too much iron in the body.

So, the bottom line is that iron supplements are important, but exercise is equally important, if not more, in the production of red blood cells. A healthy, balanced diet, exercise and iron supplements (a normal dose) should fix you right up!

Good luck!

~Ryan :)