Symptoms of Iron Deficiency

Your body suffers from a deficiency of iron when you don’t have enough mineral iron. This leads to low level of red blood cells in your body. Our body requires iron to produce hemoglobin, a protein present in red blood cells that allows them to carry oxygen around the body. If your body fails to produce enough hemoglobin, your tissues and muscles won’t get enough oxygen and be able to work effectively. And this may give rise to a chronic health issue Anemia. Although there may be different types of anemia, iron deficiency iron is the most common type.

Common causes of iron deficiency include inadequate iron intake due to poor diet, inflammatory bowel disease, increased requirements during pregnancy and blood loss through heavy periods or internal bleeding. Whatever may be the cause, iron deficiency can result in unpleasant symptoms that affect your quality of life.

Uncommon Tiredness

It is one of the common symptoms of iron deficiency that is caused due to less amount of oxygen reaching the tissues of your body. When your body lacks the sufficient amount of hemoglobin, less oxygen reaches your tissues and muscles, depriving them of energy. In addition, your heart works hard to transport oxygen-rich blood around your body, which makes you tired. However, people with iron deficiency experience weakness, feel cranky, low concentration level.

Noticeable Irregular heartbeats

Hemoglobin allows your red blood cells to carry oxygen around the body. And if your body lacks hemoglobin definitely your oxygen level will go down. And you experience shortness of breath while performing normal activities like walking, climbing up the stairs, doing exercise, etc. As a result, your breathing rate increases while trying to get more consume. So, if you find yourself out of breath doing normal day to day task that was easy to do before, these could be the signs of iron deficiency.

Pale Face

Deficiency of iron may lead to pale colouration on the face and lower eyelids. The hemoglobin in the red blood cells is responsible to give the blood its red colour. The low level of iron in the body leads to the pale colouration of the blood. That is why the skin loses its healthy, rosy colour and the paleness could be seen all over the body or areas like faces, gums, inner lips or eyelids and on the nails. Paleness of skin is commonly seen in moderate or severe cases of anemia. You should get your blood test done in order to get confirmed if you’re iron deficient.

Dizziness and Headache

This symptom is less common than others and is often combined with lightheadedness or dizziness. Iron deficiency leads to less supply of oxygen reaching the brain. As a result, the brain can swell and pressurizes the blood vessels causing headaches.

Dry and damaged hair and skin

Dry and damaged skin and hair can be the signs of iron deficiency. This happens, when your body is iron deficient, it administers the limited oxygen to other functions of the body. Your skin and hair becomes dry and pale because they are deprived of oxygen. In more acute cases, this can lead to hair loss. It is normal for some hair to fall during washing and combing, but if you are losing a lot of hair than normal, then you may be iron deficient.