I donated blood today and thought it would be the perfect time to chat about iron.

Donating blood is a super easy process, as long as needles don’t bother you. The whole process takes around 1 hour from walking in the door to walking out. You walk in, answer some questions, answer more questions, have your blood pressure taken, and your haemoglobin checked. My donation took around 7 minutes today. Then you hang out in the waiting/snack area for 15 minutes and then you’re free to go.

The Melbourne CBD has great snacks! There are mini meat pies, mini sausage rolls, chips, chocolates, coffee machines, milkshake makers, juices, and flavoured milk. And you save 3 lives, let’s not forget about the good deed. You generally get a text message over the coming days telling you where your blood has gone to. You also get 3 hours of free parking in the CBD.

I’ve managed to rope one friend into coming with me as well so it’s a good excuse for a social outing.

Iron deficiency is a huge problem in Australia with an estimated 1.1 million Australians iron deficient.

What is iron?

It is a trace mineral that is classified as an essential nutrient because it is vital to many of our cells being able to do their jobs.

What does iron do in the body?

Iron has many roles in our body the main one being its involvement in oxygen transport.
Red blood cells use a molecule called haemoglobin to move oxygen around the body. In each molecule of haemoglobin there are 4 atoms of iron that can bind to 4 molecules of oxygen.

In a nutshell, low iron = low oxygen = tissues not getting enough oxygen = sad body.

Where is iron found in the body?

A typical adult human body contains around 3-4g of iron. About 70% of iron is found in haemoglobin in red blood cells, around 25% is stored as ferritin in the liver and the remainder is myoglobin in muscle cells.

How much iron do I need each day?

Below is the recommended dietary intake. If you follow a vegan or vegetarian diet you multiply your RDI x 1.8 to get your daily requirements.

Who is most at risk of iron deficiency?

• Menstruating women

• Pregnant or breastfeeding women

• Infants and young children

• Teenagers

• People who follow vegetarian or vegan diets

• People addicted to alcohol

• People taking gastric acid-lowering medications e.g. PPI

• People who have had gastric bypass surgery

• Blood donors

Adults on average lose about 1mg of iron per day through the sloughing of cells from the skin and lining of the gastrointestinal tract.

During menstruation, women lose around 2mg per day.

Growth spurts in children increase requirements.

As does increased blood volume and losses during pregnancy and increased requirements during breastfeeding.

The iron content in the blood is around 50mg/100mL. The average blood donation is 500mL with the average loss of iron being about 250mg.

Which foods are high in iron?

Iron from our diet comes from either animal products known as haem iron or from plant products known as non-haem iron.

Haem iron is the most bioavailable, meaning it is better absorbed than non-haem iron. About 25% of haem iron is absorbed compared to 17% of non-haem iron.

Around 18% of dietary iron is absorbed from mixed diets and about 10% from vegetarian diets.
To increase the absorption of non-haem iron it is best eaten with foods containing vitamin c.

Oysters and mussels are some of the best sources of haem iron.

Fortified cereals, green leafy veg, and dried apricots are some of the best sources of non-haem iron.

What are the symptoms of iron deficiency?

• Weakness

• Fatigue - waking up tired or napping in the afternoon

• Headaches

• Impaired work function

• Impaired cognitive function

• Impaired immunity

• Pale skin

• Inability to regulate body temperature

• Craving non-food items

• Cold hands or feets

• Irregular heartbeat

• Dizziness

How is iron deficiency diagnosed?

By a simple blood test at your GP clinic or pathology lab.

It is important to get tested if you have the above symptoms because iron deficiency isn’t always caused by blood loss or inadequate dietary intake

• Symptoms of iron deficiency can be similar to other health conditions

• Deficiency may be due to a condition of the gastrointestinal tract that inhibits iron absorption

• Iron deficiency can occur due to chronic disease

• Certain medications may decrease iron absorption