My sophomore year of high school, I got diagnosed with something all baddies are familiar with: iron deficiency anemia. I’m sure we all have some sort of understanding of what iron deficiency anemia is, and many of you guys have it yourselves. It is so hard to understand what this diagnosis entails and how this can impact your day-to-day life.
Iron deficiency anemia is caused by your body not having enough iron to produce hemoglobin. Iron is crucial for producing blood cells and hemoglobin is essential for oxygen transportation. If your iron levels are low, your body cannot make blood cells that are able to transport the most efficient amount of oxygen.
Our bodies don’t make iron, and so we have to get iron through the food we eat or supplements. Women are especially prone to developing iron deficiency anemia because of our periods. We lose so much blood during our menstrual cycles and sometimes our bodies cannot replenish the iron that was lost. Over time, this causes our body to be forced to function without the healthy level of iron, and eventually oxygen.
Some foods that are high in iron are red meats, spinach, chicken, turkey, dark chocolate (the higher percentage of cacao the better), and tofu. I am usually able to tell when my period is going to begin because I CRAVE red meat – and I am a white meat girl through and through. My body doesn’t adequately absorb iron, so I try to eat more than the daily intake requirement to ‘make up’ for that inability. Since my body doesn’t absorb iron regularly, taking iron supplement pills do not help. I took supplements for multiple years and each time I got my blood work done there was no increase in my iron levels – they were decreasing. Because of this, I had to get a series of iron infusions, and these really helped me! I still take iron supplements with prenatal vitamins, but most of my iron comes from the food I eat.
I remember I was really scared the first time I got my blood drawn and didn’t understand what iron deficiency or anemia was and I didn’t know what the heck it was. I hope this short crash course helps whoever is also worried about how anemia could impact their day to day lives!