Signs Your Body has Iron Deficiency
Iron is important to the red blood cells as this makes the haemoglobin, which carries oxygen to the tissues in our body. Without enough oxygen, the tissues and muscles won’t function effectively.
There are signs to watch out for to know if you have iron deficiency, which can eventually lead to anaemia. Iron deficiency anaemia is the most common type of anaemia.
Check if these signs are occurring to you or not:
- Catching breath. This may happen whether you're just walking briskly or doing your daily workout. Because of the lack of oxygen, you seem to run out of breath while doing some simple acts that you don’t experience before.
- Fragile nails. Nails become brittle when there is iron deficiency.
- Pinkish/reddish urine. Normal urine color usually varies from pale yellow to amber. So when yours become pinkish or reddish, it means you’re lacking iron.
- Fatigue. Since iron makes haemoglobin that carries oxygen in the red blood cells, insufficient amount of it makes one feel exhausted.
- Muscle aches. Having that feeling when your muscles ache too much after a short workout? Not enough iron in our muscles make it unable to recover properly which causes the ache we feel.
- Pale skin. Not the normal white skin color, pale skin means low red blood cells which are caused by iron deficiency.
- Being sick often. When our body has insufficient iron, our immune system becomes weak too making us vulnerable to bacteria and viruses.
To avoid iron deficiency, a person must eat foods rich in this mineral such as meat, beans, leafy greens, eggs, seafoods, raisins and other dried fruit.
Published at: 02/16/2015
