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NUTRITION - HEALTH

Are your iron stocks enough for 2017 ?

From the physiologic point of view, the limiting In addition to its implication in the oxygen trans-
factor is the capacity of the red cells (via hemo- port, iron plays several roles in the metabolism
globin) to bind iron and to carry oxygen to the and the immune system.
muscles. From its resource in iron, hemoglobin is
directly influenced by the iron intakes and stocks. Thus iron has a main role !

How to diagnose an iron deficiency ?

Only a blood test can
show the iron stocks.
Then we have to
proceed to a classi-
cal blood count (red
cells, white cells,
platelets) to evaluate
the hemoglobin rate.
In parallel, it’s im-
portant to dose the
serum iron and
above all the ferri-
tin, the iron stocking
protein, to see the le-
vel of iron reserves.
The ferritin physio-
logic rates are :
• Men : 20 à 310
μg·L-1 Sports women are most vulnerable to iron deficiency
• Women : 20 à
204 μg·L-1 (after me-
nopause : 20 to 250/300 μg·l-1)

NB: The level of ferritin is higher in case of inflammatory state. In order not to make mistake in the diagnosis, it is
important to always be sure about the inflammatory state of the patient by dosing the C-reactive protein (CRP). If
the CRP rate is normal so the measure of ferritin is right.

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