Essential Elements: The Health Effects of Iron Deficiency and Replacement

Part One of a Two-Part Series on Vitamin Deficiencies

Read Part Two, about vitamin D deficiency, in Vancouver Family Magazine’s October 2017 issue

When Jennifer Prescott, now age 29, was in college, she started experiencing major fatigue, above and beyond the typical exhausted-college-student variety.  “My appetite was very low, I had no energy, I slept for more than 12 hours a day. I remember getting up for work in the morning, taking a nap after work and before class, and sleeping after classes until my roommate got home and woke me up for dinner.”

Julie Buchan, Vancouver Family Magazine publisher and mother of two kids, noticed the same thing last year. “For three months I had been feeling tired and had to take naps almost every day to make it through the day,” she says. “I was sleepy all the time, more than my normal sleepy, and I craved ice like crazy.”

Although at different stages of life, both women experienced similar symptoms, and both were proactive about seeking answers and a solution to the loss of energy that affected their everyday lives. After meeting with doctors and completing blood work to investigate, both women learned that they were dangerously low on iron, a nutrient crucial to physical energy and performance.

To read more, pick up a copy of the September 2017 issue at any of these locations, or view the digital archive copy here.