Did you know that being iron deficient can affect your hair?
Chances are, like most people, this information might be new to you. It’s one of those everyday things that we don’t really think about until someone points it out to us and then it makes sense. It’s hard to do everything right for our bodies all the time, and vitamins like iron can certainly slip under the radar. Getting enough iron from your diet is especially difficult as many people are unable to easily absorb iron from their diet alone (1 in 8 people!), even if that diet contains iron-rich foods like dried beans and legumes, dark green leafy vegetables, dried fruits, nuts and seeds, wholegrain cereals, breads and red meats.
Therefore, iron deficiency is one of the most common nutritional deficiencies affecting 1 in 8 Australians today. So what does that look like?
With symptoms such as headaches and fatigue, that can often be attributed to many things including stress, iron deficiency is hard to catch. So let’s talk about one of the lesser known symptoms: hair!
A lack of iron affects the way your blood carries oxygen and other vitamins around the body, due to reduced hemoglobin in the blood. This affects the amount of oxygen in the whole body, and it can show in your skin and hair as the cells that stimulate hair growth are deprived of their essential oxygen flow. When skin and hair lack oxygen, they become dry and weak, meaning more breakage, frizziness and even greater than normal hair loss, in both men and women. When paired with dry, flaky skin, dizziness and headaches, these are strong signs that you may have an iron deficiency.
The good news is, iron deficiency is easily treated, with iron! Even the most extreme hair damage due to iron deficiency is repairable and should be short term, when treated properly. In addition to having healthier hair, there’s also an improvement in overall health by treating an iron deficiency with an iron supplement. So do your body and hair a favour today if you want to maintain your iron levels, and supplement your intake with our one-a-day iron gummy to meet your recommended daily requirements!
References: https://www.healthline.com/health/iron-deficiency-and-hair-loss
Why Vitamin C and Iron are a winning combination
Vitamin C, like iron, is often found in your normal recommended diet, mostly in citrus fruits like oranges alongside strawberries and vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, spinach and red and green capsicums. Vitamin C is a vital nutrient and antioxidant that boosts the immune system, removes unwanted substances from the body, enhances wound healing and produces the necessary function to form and maintain bones, skin, and blood vessels.
Why does your intake of vitamin C affect your iron? Like many things in the body, iron absorption isn’t simple! Iron comes in two forms, heme iron which is mostly found in animal flesh, and non-heme iron which is found in plants such as beans, legumes and dark leafy greens. Heme iron is more easily absorbed by your body through diet alone, but both forms are necessary for health and normal body function. That’s where vitamin C comes in!
When taken together, vitamin C has been proven to increase the absorption of iron in the small intestine. Vitamin C captures non-heme (plant-based) iron and stores it in a form that’s more easily absorbed by your body. This results in a more efficient absorption of iron throughout the body. Since vitamin C is water soluble and not stored in the body, it needs to be consumed every day and adding it alongside non-heme iron is a great way to maintain adequate levels. Luckily for you, The Iron Company has an iron and vitamin C combination to help you get the most out of your nutrients.
Our iron gummies are also created with a slow release formula to aid with this absorption process. The iron in our gummies can take up to 3-4 hours to be released so it passes by the stomach through to the small intestine, to the part of the body where nutrients are best absorbed.
Looking after your body has simple hacks when you have the correct information! So get the most out of your nutrients and body, with the combination of vitamin C and iron and soon you’ll be functioning at your best.
References: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/increase-iron-absorption