Lack of iron in the body - symptoms and ways to fill the deficit

Iron is part of the protein structure of hemoglobin, which supplies oxygen to organs. With a lack of intake, an abnormal absorption from the stomach, iron deficiency anemia occurs. The lack of iron in the body leads to hypoxia (oxygen starvation). The work of all systems is disrupted, but the heart and brain suffer the most.

How to determine the lack of iron in the body?

When there are deficiencies in the body of trace elements, typical symptoms appear that give rise to a doctor and blood tests. The lack of iron in the body is determined by the level of iron-containing blood protein - hemoglobin. If the level falls below 120 g / l in women and 130 g / l in men, a diagnosis can be made - a lack of iron in the body. The analysis is performed on an empty stomach in the morning. The day before, you can not eat fatty foods, take alcohol. An hour before the study is prohibited smoking and exercise.

Lack of iron in the body - symptoms

The most common manifestations of the fact that the body needs additional iron are:

Signs of a shortage in the body of iron women experience during pregnancy, with profuse menstruation. At high loads in athletes, with the rapid growth of children and adolescents, too, the need for more admission is increasing, so these categories are at risk and require mandatory laboratory monitoring of hemoglobin levels.

Causes of lack of iron in the body

With a decrease in intake from food, a violation of absorption into the blood from the digestive system, or bleeding, the iron content in the body falls. The index of iron in the blood is lower than normal when:

With prolonged use of medications that worsen the transport of iron from food, drug anemia may develop. This group of antacid drugs that reduce the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, antibiotics, sulfonamides, calcium preparations. Chronic inflammatory processes in the body and lung disease can cause a decrease in hemoglobin in the blood.

What threatens the lack of iron in the body?

With a chronic lack of oxygen, heart activity is disturbed - arrhythmias, heart failure, brain activity worsens - memory and intellect are weakened, irritability and depression appear. Deficiency of iron in the body reduces immune defense, infections are more severe and often give relapses. In the elderly, the risk of developing heart attacks and strokes increases. Anemia of pregnant women threatens with violation of the formation of fetal organs and systems, lagging behind the child in development.

Daily iron norm for women

Women of childbearing age need to get 15-20 mg of iron per day, with pregnancy and nursing - up to 30 mg. Women with the onset of menopause the iron level per day is only 8 mg. The most easily digested iron (20-35%) of animal products, because it is in the same hemoglobin. From plant foods, the percentage of assimilation is lower - from 2 to 15%. Helps absorb iron ascorbic acid and B vitamins, and inhibits the calcium of dairy products, tea or coffee tannins, alcohol.

How to make up for the lack of iron in the body?

It is necessary to cure the cause that caused iron deficiency. Vitamin complexes with micronutrients will help to compensate for iron deficiency in the initial forms of anemia or prevent it. The best and safest way to get iron is a properly formulated diet, in which you need:

With ineffectiveness of preventive measures and in severe disease, iron-containing drugs are prescribed in tablets or injections. The most common means - Aktiferrin, Ferrum Lek, Sorbifer durules, Totema. Preparations of iron at reception are transferred hardly and have many contraindications, therefore are accepted under the control of the doctor.

Vitamins with iron for women

For prevention of iron deficiency (in the absence of serious diseases), multivitamin complexes with microelements are used. In them, the composition is balanced in such a way that iron can fully assimilate. For women, it is best to choose vitamins that provide a daily need for it. Optimal vitamins containing iron:

Most often, multivitamin complexes are prescribed one tablet a day for a month. They are taken necessarily after eating and washed down with half a glass of water. For children are issued special complexes in the form of chewable tablets or jelly with a fruit flavor: Jungle with minerals, Naturethto, Complivit Active. After a month of taking the blood test, you need to repeat it, because an iron overdose is no less dangerous than a defect.

Which products are most of the iron?

The best sources of digestible iron are liver of beef, pork, chicken. Products rich in iron, with anemia must be in the menu: veal, beef, turkey, mussels, egg yolk. A lot of iron and in plant foods: lentils, beans, tofu, pumpkin seeds, buckwheat. Beans before consumption should be soaked to reduce the concentration of phytic acid, which inhibits the absorption of iron. In apples and garnets, used to raise hemoglobin, iron is low. The most useful for anemia - blueberries and apricots, prunes and dried apricots.

Lack of iron in the blood - diet

Dietotherapy anemia, in addition to saturation of the body with iron, should provide the body with valuable proteins, vitamins and beneficial microelements. Necessarily need to eat meat products, a lot of green vegetables and fruits. The lack of iron can be corrected by a sample menu:

  1. for breakfast - oatmeal and dried apricots, blueberry jelly.
  2. for the second breakfast - bread with bran, cheese, compote of black currant.
  3. For lunch - soup of lentils, chicken liver, salad, tomato juice.
  4. For dinner - jellied fish, buckwheat porridge, beet salad with lemon juice, herbs, broth of wild rose.

In addition to the diet, folk medicine is also used to treat iron deficiency in the body. It heals anemia honey, aloe, flower pollen, germinated wheat, rosehip, St. John's wort and blackberry leaf. Women with a plentiful monthly well help nettle, a leaf of a raspberry and a grass of a yarrow, as they reduce a hemorrhage and raise a hemoglobin.