Iron-along with calcium is one of the major dietary deficiencies in American women. Because of the blood lost during menstrual periods, in one month women lose almost twice as much iron as men.

To metabolize iron in your body, you need copper, cobalt, manganese, and vitamin C. In turn, iron is required to metabolize the family of B vitamins. It promotes resistance to infection, forestalls fatigue, helps in growth, and can bounce back good skin tone. Iron is essential for the manufacture of myoglobin, the red pigment in muscles. It is also a component of the oxygen-carrying protein hemoglobin.

Iron is crucial for your immune system in a number of ways. It enhances your overall resistance to infection, keeps your immune tissues healthy, and energizes your fighter white blood cells. Moreover, it vitalizes both white and red blood cells. Your white blood cells are the major immune-health guardians while your red blood cells carry essential oxygen to all of your body's tissues.

Good for These Symptoms:

• Depression
• Fatigue
• Pallor
• Weakness
• Headaches
• Heart palpitations
• Poor concentration

Signs of Deficiency:

• Anemia and fatigue, most common in infants and among women of reproductive age.
• Also frequent sickness or infections and chronic malaise.
• Iron-deficiency anemia reduces the ranks of your vital red blood cells.

Those at risk of Low Iron

• Deficiency may be common among infants and children.
• Consequences can be quite profound as deficiency can retard intellectual development of babies and preschool children.
• Teenage girls at high risk.
• One third of all young women have low iron stores.
• Low iron leaves women particularly vulnerable to Candida, the common vaginal yeast infection.
• In adult men and women, deficiency may be caused by internal bleeding through ulcers, intestinal polyps, or hemorrhoids.
• Taking too much aspirin or drinking too much alcohol can contribute to iron deficiency.
• Older Americans are at risk for low iron.

Sources:

• Liver
• Red meat
• Raisins,
• Enriched and whole-grain cereals, especially farina
• Dried beans
• Peas
• Asparagus
• Leafy greens
• Raw clams and oysters
• Dried peaches
• Egg yolks
• Nuts
• Molasses
• Soybean flour
• Beans
• Poultry
• Oatmeal

RDA: 10 mg for men 18 mg for women

Optimal Level: 15 mg

Maximum: 25 mg

Signs of Toxicity:

• Liver toxicity,
• Induced vitamin-C deficiency,
• Metallic gray hue to skin or "bronzing" of skin.