It’s Spring. It’s training season. It’s 174 days to the Olympic Games. And if you’re a serious female athlete….It’s time to check your iron levels!

Female athletes with low levels of iron in their bodies, yet who are not anemic, may be at a disadvantage even before their competitive season starts and could benefit from early screening and monitoring for anemia and low iron reserves at the beginning of the training season. This is not news to any female athlete following The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™, but it may be news to the rest of you.

A new study which confirms what I have been telling my female athlete clients for years was just published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. It examined the iron levels of college-age female rowers at the beginning of the training season and sought to determine the link between iron deficiency without anemia and the athletes’ rowing performance.

The authors studied iron levels in 165 non-anemic women rowers from five colleges in central New York State. Those who had lower iron levels were 21 seconds slower in a simulated 2-kilometer race than rowers with normal iron levels. This is a pretty big deal if you are a competitive athlete.

Iron deficiency is the most common nutrient deficiency in the world. In the United States, anemia affects 3 percent to 5 percent of the population of premenopausal women; iron depletion — not at the level of anemia — affects 16 percent, the authors write.

Compared with sedentary women, female athletes are more susceptible to low iron levels. And the consequences may hit female athletes harder. Low iron reduces their endurance and the efficiency with which they use energy, and it increases muscle fatigue.

Iron is an essential component of blood hemoglobin and when a deficiency results in anemia it plays an important role in oxygen transport and use. When people consume iron-deficient diets (which is impossible to do on The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program) or when other factors cause them to become iron deficient, they first deplete their iron stores in the liver; at the final stage of iron depletion, they become anemic due to insufficient iron to produce new red blood cells.

I recommend female endurance athletes get early screening not only for anemia but also for low iron reserves; and that female athletes take iron supplements at the beginning of a season to prevent decreases in iron levels throughout the training and competitive periods — since I am not there to see you personally, only take iron supplements upon the recommendation of your physician. Iron supplementation can be dangerous and should only be done under the care of a qualified physician. Be sure to ask your doctor about this at your next physical examination if you are a serious athlete.

Other studies have shown that iron supplementation improves resistance to fatigue and endurance capacity in non-athletes with low levels of iron. Athletes with a history of anemia or iron deficiency should also regularly monitor their iron levels.

*****

Dr. Ken Romeo is a Board-Certified Physician in Alternative Medicine, a scientist and a nutrition expert who teaches how to improve brain health, memory, physical fitness and age reversal through lifestyle modification and Nutraceutical supplementation in The Romeo OptiLIFE Health Program™. Dr. Romeo has been studying, writing and “speaking out” about the effects of lifestyle on disease for over 10 years.

Dr. Romeo currently serves on the Medical Committee of the United States Olympic Team at USA Boxing. He formerly worked in professional sports on the medical staff of the Astros, World Cup Indoor Soccer League, US Women’s National Boxing Team, Australian Men’s Olympic Boxing Team and in professional boxing and mixed martial arts.

Dr. Romeo’s entire practice and program are designed to help people feel better, look better, live longer and avoid, reverse or control those “diseases of age” that modern society has come to believe are inevitable in their senior years like heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, arthritis, slowed thinking, impaired memory, hearing loss and some forms of cancer to name a few.

Dr. Romeo’s practice is located in Reno, Nevada. Dr. Romeo does not engage in the practice of medicine in the State of Nevada.