Iron Deficiency in Women.
It is a well known fact that anaemia can give rise to a range of problems for people who suffer from it. In what follows, I will be concentrating on elaborating some of the subtle health issues surrounding anaemia. Anaemia refers to a condition negatively affecting blood, wherein there is insufficient iron for the production of haemoglobin. On the other hand, when the body is healthy, the red blood cells (RBC) transport the haemoglobin which is the carrier of oxygenated iron to virtually every part of the body.
If the iron levels contained in the RBC are deficient, one of the most conspicuous symptoms is acute fatigue. It is the richness of iron in the haemoglobin that makes the RBC look a deep shade of red. The deeper the shade of red, the easier it is to oxygenate blood taken from the lungs and transport it to every cellular receptor site in the body.
Women are most vulnerable to iron deficiency during and immediately after pregnancy. The
iron requirements during pregnancy can change dramatically with each trimester. For example,
babies need to store 80% of iron in the first two trimesters. In the final trimester, the baby needs
to store another 80% of iron to help it survive the first six months of its life. One approach to solve this problem is to include manufactured folate (otherwise known as folic acid) supplements in the pregnant women’s diet if they fail to get enough iron otherwise.
Women Health Open J. 2017; 3(3): e3-e5. doi: 10.17140/WHOJ-3-e008
