Femme fatale

Feeling tired and looking haggard? Perhaps you are lacking iron

by Nickky Faustine De Guzman
November 12, 2013

Dr. Corazon Gamilla, Chair UST OB GYNE Department

Everybody needs a supply of iron in the body to last through the day but women need it most especially. Why? To replenish their monthly blood loss, maintain health during pregnancy, and sustain their everyday roles as super women. Imagine juggling careers, love life, family, and other responsibilities all at once!

Iron is one of the most vital minerals we need because it carries oxygen from the lungs throughout the body. Thus, some of our bodily functions will suffer if we lack iron. It is also a major component of enzymes, which help the body digest food.

“In layman’s terms, iron contains oxygen, which we need to live and function accordingly. We cannot do without oxygen,” UST OB-GYNE Department Chairman Dr. Corazon Zaida Gamilla says.

However, despite its indispensable role, we tend to forget, or sometimes forgo eating iron-rich foods like red meat, eggs, liver, nuts, and oatmeal, among others.  Thus, low red blood cell count or anemia results to pallor, lack of concentration, tiredness, easy fatigability,  shortness of breath, unusual headache, and vertigo.

According to the 2008 National Statistics Office data, there is a prevalence of anemia among pregnant women, lactating women, and babies between six months to one year old because of malnutrition.

Treating anemia however is easy and seemingly manageable, Gamilla says. Aside from eating foods fortified with iron, daily exercise and enough sleep work wonders.

“Catnaps are powerhouses because they reinforce sleep but nothing compares to nocturnal sleep,” Gamilla says when asked if siestas and morning slumbers can replace the usual bed time routine.

An average eight hours of sleep restores our blood count/iron to its baseline. Pregnant women need a minimum of 12 mg while women in general need 1500 mcg of iron. Males meanwhile have an iron baseline of 14 mg, Gamilla says.

However, let us admit that maintaining the right amount of iron in our body can be as demanding and daunting as our daily activities. Good thing there are iron supplements we can all resort to. One of the available supplements in the market includes Sangobion. Unlike majority of the iron supplements, Sangobion does not contribute to constipation, thanks to Sorbitol, an anti-constipating agent. Moreover, it has chewy chocolate flavor hence, there’s no metallic smell. Moreover, Sangobion contains vitamins and minerals like Vitamin C, Vitamin B12, copper sulfate, manganese sulfate, and folic acid.

Gamilla says that it is best to drink supplements and medicines with water before eating breakfast for better absorption.