Not getting enough iron can cause anemia and poor efficiency. This piece discusses how iron works and what to look for to ensure your female athlete has enough.
Understanding Iron Deficiency
People often have an iron shortage, so their bodies don’t have enough iron. Iron is needed for many things in the body, like making hemoglobin, which moves oxygen through the blood. When the body doesn’t have enough iron to make blood, it can be iron deficient. This can cause tiredness, weakness, and pale skin, among other things.
Because women lose more iron through sweat and periods, iron shortage can be especially bad for sports. If a woman has long periods or does a lot of vigorous physical exercise, she may be more likely to become iron deficient. Women who play sports should know the symptoms of iron shortage to get help if needed. Blood tests that evaluate the quantity of iron and hemoglobin in the blood can tell if someone is iron deficient.
How Iron Works
Everybody knows that we need air to live. Iron is also essential for life. Iron helps air move around your body by forming hemoglobin, a protein in blood cells that moves oxygen. If you don’t get enough iron, your red blood cells won’t have adequate hemoglobin to bring oxygen around your body. Put another way, you feel tired when you are out of breath because your body needs air. Your body can’t move enough air around when you don’t have enough iron, which makes you tired.
Iron Deficiency: Everything You Need To Know
Because women drop blood every month during their periods, they are more likely to be iron deficient. It is known that athletes are more likely to get it because they lose more iron through sweat and pee. However, there is mixed data on whether young female players are more likely to be iron deficient than young female non-athletes. We do know from studies that performance goes down when there isn’t enough iron.
These Are Some Other Signs And Symptoms Of Iron Deficiency:
Fatigue
Brain fog
Paleness of the skin
Swollen tongue irritability
Some other signs and symptoms are a heartbeat that isn’t normal, pale skin, weakness, dizziness, cold hands and feet, and headaches.
Causes Of Iron Deficiency
Lack of iron is not the same as anemia, but it can worsen anemia. When you don’t have enough iron in your body, your iron stores drop. This is hard to spot because the iron in your body stores is not the same iron that makes hemoglobin. This means that it might not affect your daily life. When iron delivery slows down, this is the second stage of iron shortage.
As you now know, iron plays a big part in getting oxygen to all parts of your body. This is when you might feel tired doing everyday things. After the second stage, the body has insufficient iron and blood. At this point, not getting enough iron has turned into anemia.
Finding Out If You’re Getting Enough Iron
For girls ages 14 to 18, the RDA for iron is 15 mg, more than the 11 mg recommended for boys. Here are some things that are good sources of iron:
Three milligrams of iron are in 3.5 ounces of shellfish, about the size of your palm.
Two to three milligrams of beef are in three ounces, about the size of your hand.
Each cup of spinach has just under 3 mg of iron.
Yes, when cooked, spinach loses certain minerals, but iron is not one of them. Therefore, a fresh cup of raw or cooked spinach will meet your iron requirements!
There are 6.6 mg in a cup of lentils.
About 5 mg is in a heated cup of chickpeas or black-eyed peas.
About 4 to 6 mg are in a cup of cooked white, lima, or red kidney beans.
There are 4.5 mg in a cup of palm hearts.
There are 3 mg of iron in a giant potato.
How To Know If You Are Iron Deficient
If you think you might not have enough iron in your blood, you need a test that checks your iron and hemoglobin levels. A blood test will measure your hematocrit levels, which show how much of your blood is made up of red blood cells. You may also have tests that measure the amount of ferritin in your blood and the size and color of your blood cells.
If you think you might not get enough iron, taking an iron supplement might not be the best idea for everyone.
The Importance Of Sports To Health And Fitness
IBS can happen when you take some vitamins, and too much iron can also be deficient. Get iron from natural, whole foods, and talk to a sports dietitian for help before you do anything else.
How To Treat And Avoid Iron Deficiency:
Treating and avoiding iron shortages in female players is very important for their health and efficiency. Taking iron supplements and making changes to your food to get more iron are common ways to treat this condition. Different kinds of iron vitamins, such as ferrous gluconate, ferrous sulfate, and ferrous fumarate, are available.
To get the most out of these supplements and avoid side effects like stomach upset, you should only take them as your doctor tells you to. A diet full of iron-rich foods is another way for female athletes to avoid iron shortages besides supplements.
Some of these are red meat, chicken, fish, lentils, beans, veggies, and grains with added iron. Citrus fruits and other foods rich in vitamin C can help your body better absorb iron, so eating these at meals is a good idea.
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Also, avoiding foods and drinks that can stop your body from absorbing iron, like calcium-rich foods, coffee, and tea, is essential during meals.
Female athletes should watch how much iron they take in, especially when they lose more iron, like when they menstruate or work out hard. Regular blood tests that check iron levels can help find and treat iron shortages early. Working closely with a medical professional, like a sports nurse or doctor, can help ensure that iron levels are adequately controlled and that methods for dieting and supplementing work.
Conclusion
Female players should worry about iron shortages because they can harm their health and effectiveness. Knowing what causes iron insufficiency, its signs, and how vital iron is is essential to avoiding and treating it. Female athletes should prioritize getting enough iron through food and supplements, and they should work closely with their doctors to ensure their iron levels are regularly checked.