“I love people to imagine that our body is made up of about 50 trillion tiny little circles, which are cells, and inside those cells are little tiny cities that need oxygen to be able to conduct their operation.
“So iron is crucial for that, which is why [with] iron deficiency, there’s almost nothing it doesn’t touch and it’s a big concern. It is the most common nutritional deficiency globally, including in New Zealand.”
She said it can affect everyone – including women across their menstruation years, pregnant women, endurance athletes, and children and toddlers.
“There are a lot of people who are affected by it and I feel it’s being missed or I think sometimes even ignored at the moment, and I want to bring it back to the top of the conversation pile.”
Dr Libby said many people can attribute fatigue or low energy to being a factor of a busy or stressful life, and while that can be the case, iron deficiency can be a major factor in long-term symptoms.
“When the fatigue is ongoing, so when it lasts for more than two weeks, when your energy is not restored from a good quality sleep, then that’s when you want to start to investigate it and find out what might have changed.”
Iron depletion, iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia, which is when there are no longer enough red blood cells, or the number is too small to deliver oxygen to all of your tissues, could all be factors.
And unless people are proactively getting regular blood tests to monitor their levels, many people are not aware they are unwell and that makes it difficult to fix.
“Too many people have been found at the bottom of the cliff,” Dr Libby said.
“They’re at a point where they need an infusion, and we’re very fortunate that we have access to such lifesaving technology, but my concern is I’ve met a lot of women over the years who just use infusions as their way of managing [and] not eating enough dietary iron.
“So they’ll wait till they are at that absolute rock bottom, go get an infusion, and then just keep living the way they’ve been living without addressing why they keep becoming deficient.
“That’s not a good plan in my opinion, because you spend too much time either depleted or deficient before you hit that anaemia point where the infusion is actually essential. It is so much better to just maintain those lovely, robust levels in the first place.”
She said iron deficiency can have lasting impacts if not treated, particularly if it starts in childhood and carries on into adulthood.
One area where it can impact is in the production of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin, as iron is needed to produce them, and this can be a factor in anxiety.
It can also lead to thyroid issues, Dr Libby said.
“I feel that right now there’s this tendency amongst women to sort of say, ‘oh, well, I’m iron deficient and so is my best friend, and so aren’t we all’, and we’re not necessarily acting to address it. And that’s a big concern.”
Listen to the full episode of The Little Things for more from Dr Libby on the symptoms, and the different ways of treating and preventing it.
The Little Things is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. The series is hosted by broadcaster Francesca Rudkin and health researcher Louise Ayrey. New episodes are available every Saturday.
