The FastDay Forum

It is being reported that most of the women are lacking Iron in their daily diet which leads to many bad health side effects. Can anyone tell me what is the average requirement of Iron in women ?

[carorees]

Hi Jackielon and welcome to the forum!

Um, I wasn't aware of this research...where did you see/hear of it? I had a quick look on PubMed and there is a recent paper saying that Iron Deficiency Anaemia (IDA) is common in the developing world. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23613366

In the developed world, unless you have diagnosed anaemia, I think iron supplementation is not necessary except perhaps in pregnancy. This study of Canadians http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23356044 found that only 9% of women had IDA.

As far as what does is needed, I found a study showing that in women with serum ferritin levels below 50 mcg/l a supplement of oral ferrous sulfate that provides 80 mg of elemental iron may be beneficial. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22777991

Heavy periods can lead to anaemia - been there, done that. If you are concerned just get a blood test done by your GP.

I would try to increase iron naturally through diet. I had to take an iron supplement when I was pregnant and it caused excruciating stomach pain.

Women are allowed to be more anaemic than men

There are some sophisticated supplements and some basic chemicals (rust). Bread (and perhaps flour) are supplemented with iron already.

I have microcytic anaemia, cause unknown, it's not an iron deficiency in my case.

My husband put an iron nail in the cooking pot with the veg and potatoes when I was pregnant, and I never got anaemic ! But then I ate loads of red meat as well, as it is the easiest way of getting most of the minerals and vitamins you need in one hit.

Horse meat is high in iron

Too much iron can cause constipation.

Good job I don't eat horse meat then

Hi @Maggiee Well said and then I saw this post down below your name.
night night I'm off to bed
But a bit of reading for you hope some of it helps

Carorees is, as usual, pretty much on the money. The iron requirement for premenopausal women is approximately twice that of men ie 20 mg per day, and twice that if you are pregnant. Also if you are building muscle (and myoglobin) you will need more. Best dietary sources are red meat - and oysters (yum!). Plant sources are not so nearly well absorbed. If you are supplementing, as some people have mentioned, you can get tummy upsets, constipation and/or diarrhoea. Be careful with supplements, if you can, have them in an empty tummy, because tea/coffee and cereals will drastically reduce iron absorption. You can also improve absorption by taking vitamin c at the same time. Or try a different formulation, if your levels aren't coming up - I couldn't get my levels up with ferrous sulphate, but as soon as I changed to ferrous fumarate it was better. The specific blood test is ferritin for your long term iron storage level. This may be down & causing symptoms of tiredness & lethargy even with a normal haemoglobin level. Finally, if you do have iron-deficiency anaemia and there isn't an obvious cause like heavy periods, you might need further investigation to rule out serious causes of "occult" blood loss from the gastrointestinal tract - bowel cancer being an important one if you are middle aged or have a family history.

My low ferritin levels were probably caused by my aversion to red meat, eating a very high fibre diet, along with being a blood donor - I wasn't very impressed with the Australian blood bank's response to my questions of the effect of blood donation on ferritin levels - they are very willing to ask you the most private questions, but unfortunately the information flow isn't two-way - I would go so far as to say they were failing in their duty of care to me as a donor. But what can you do?

That is one thing I don't have to worry about. I have abnormally high Ferritin (but not high enough for the doctor to be to worried) so have to avoid supplementing with iron. I wish the blood donor people would let me donate as it would get my ferritin levels down to normal.

thanks @Sue.Q and many thanks for the relevant information @jools7

Everything else was fine except just for the low iron levels, the doctor prescribed the supplements - he did think it might be a problem with my bowels, mainly diarrhoea as I suffer with IBS including a very high lactose intolerance, so I have made an appointment with the gastroenterologist but I did have a colonoscopy Feb last year.

It will be interesting what he says about the low iron, meanwhile I will continue to eat more meat, and healthy greens, I have cut down on my coffee these last few days, I was generally having between 2-4 cups of black coffee per day instead now have a freshly squeezed orange juice every day.

I have read that the supplements can cause digestive problems, but as this a common thing with me, I will just monitor it.

I am hoping this will serve as a pick me up as I was putting the tiredness and lethargy to other medication I am on.

My initial query I was just wondering if Fasting may have anything to do with it, but not so which I am pleased about.

Many thanks for your wonderful help and support.

cheers Maggie.