Dr. Jordan Metzl's Running Strong by Jordan Metzl

Author:Jordan Metzl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rodale
Published: 2015-04-09T04:00:00+00:00

ANEMIA

Sometimes a female patient will tell me she feels tired all the time and lethargic when she runs, and she has no idea why. She gets plenty of sleep; she eats well. So I ask her about her training: Is she training hard? Putting in a lot of miles? And about her menstrual cycles—does she have heavy periods? If she answers yes to these questions, I’m thinking she has iron-deficiency anemia, and I recommend a blood test.

Your body uses iron to make red blood cells. If you are lacking iron, there aren’t enough boxcars (red blood cells) to carry the precious cargo (oxygen) to the muscles and tissues that need them to function optimally. The result: Runners, and most often female runners due to the monthly loss of iron from menstruation, fatigue easily and feel like they are always “out of shape,” even when they are well trained. In addition to fatigue and weakness, you may be pale under your fingernails and in the rims lining your eyelids, and you may have a rapid pulse, since your heart needs to work harder to move blood and oxygen around your body. Female runners don’t just lose iron during menstruation either; when they run (and this goes for men too), they crush red blood cells with each footstrike. So if you love long distances, you destroy a lot of red blood cells. Then, if your diet is deficient in iron-rich foods—meat being one of the richest—you are looking at the trifecta of anemia risks.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.