Iron deficiency occurs when your body doesn’t have enough of the mineral iron.
Your body needs iron to make hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that enables them to carry oxygen around the body.
If your body doesn’t have enough hemoglobin, your tissues and muscles won’t get enough oxygen to be able to work effectively. This leads to a condition called anemia.
Although there are different types of anemia, iron deficiency anemia is the most common worldwide.
Iron deficiency can result in symptoms that can affect your quality of life. However, in some cases, people experience no symptoms.
Below are 6 signs of iron deficiency, starting with the most common.
1. Dull/ pale skin
One of the common indications that you have low iron levels is if your skin appears dull and un-energetic. Iron is the important component in the manufacture of hemoglobin of the blood. A low level of iron in your body makes you produce less hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the component that gives your skin the reddish- rosy shade. Hence any change to this affects the color and texture of your skin. This is especially more prominent in people who have a whitish skin tone.
2. Hair loss
You might have come across many products for your hair, advertising that they are filled to the brim with iron and how they work wonders for your hair. It shows how much important iron is needed for your hair and hair follicles. Low iron situations make your body redirect oxygen levels to other vital organs and restrict oxygen to other lesser known functionalities such as hair growth. This directly affects your growth and quality of your hair.
3. Sensitivity to cold
Have you come across some persons who shiver naturally and they always wrap their body as much as possible? Chances are extremely high that they are suffering from poor iron levels. The red blood corpuscles carry oxygen and heat throughout the body and also aid in the maintenance of the body temperature. Iron is a need for this functionality. Naturally poor or minuscule iron levels in your blood hamper this and the result is that you may tend to get chills and shivers often.
4. Lack of breath
Feeling tired often? Does even a small job of going up a stair leave you short of breath and exhausted? Well, these are clear indications that you have no iron quotients in your body. Iron is needed to transport the oxygen part throughout the body through the blood. Lack of it can hamper this process and makes your body deprived of oxygen. No wonder you might be feeling worn out and beaten up even when you do a minuscule activity.
5. Fragile nails
Your nails are in a way a part of your skin which protrudes out. The strength of your nails depends on one major factor- the ability of the oxygen in the blood to reach your nails. Low iron levels can hamper this process by affecting the hemoglobin levels and as a result, your nails do not get the needed life line. This makes them brittle and fragile and in many instances, they are prone to breakage. They also make your nails appear dull and colorless.
6. Swelling and soreness of the tongue and mouth
Sometimes just looking inside or around your mouth can indicate whether you have iron deficiency anemia.. A sore, swollen, or strangely smooth tongue can be a sign of iron deficiency anemia. Cracks on the corners of the mouth can also be a sign.
