Bring me a steak! Iron deficiency without anaemia.

Welcome everyone to the new year! I do apologise for my lack of content over the last few months but due to a massively hectic university schedule I had to prioritise and concentrate on my studies, but with most of my assignments out of the way for a short while I have taken the opportunity to write a few pieces of interest and hopefully get back to regular posting.

So, no doubt you were all well fed over the Christmas break, indulging in things we shouldn't speak of (myself included). Between work do's, family gatherings, Christmas day, Boxing day we have been very well nourished and im sure plenty of us had out fair share of protein!

PIC

I doubt any of us were deficient in the majority of nutrients but throughout the year we cannot ignore that our diets change back to a mundane, simple, quick-as-you-can regime, often leaning towards the handiest option. This leads to a variety of deficiencies depending on the individual and the foods consumed. Over the next couple of weeks we are going to look at a few different deficiencies, their common symptoms, long-term effects and how to treat them.

Our first in this mini-series is Iron

One of the most commonly recognised conditions in the developed and developing world is anaemia. Although this is not a disease in its own right but rather a plethera of symptoms and markers. It is officially diagnosed once an individuals haemoglobin count falls below 12g/dl for women and 13g/dl for men. Haemoglobin is the iron-based protein that carries oxygen to within the blood, all around your body.

Symptoms of anaemia can vary from person to person but those most commonly recorded are:

• Pale skin
• Shortness of breath
• Weakness
• Fatigue
• Dizziness
• Increased heart rate

"But we know all this" you shout at the screen, assuming I've just copied an information leaflet from the local Doctors practice. Anaemia itself, yes is quite a well-known condition that most individuals know how treat and prevent. Iron deficiency without anaemia however may be totally new to some of you and may actually be significantly effecting your life!

It comes as no surprise that within the nutrition world you may notice that everyone is different. Every single one of us is different to the next one and so is the inner workings of the wonder that is our body. As our iron intake decreases gradually we may develop anaemia, but as stated above this happens when haemoglobin falls below a certain level. But what happens during that fall, you can hardly assumed that the symptoms come over us all of a sudden with a huge BANG! No, certainly not. Instead anaemia creeps up on us, with very subtle symptoms you may not associate with your diet.

Iron deficiency is a much more common condition with many suffered undiagnosed or misdiagnosed which is logically understandable. You, as an athlete or recurrent exerciser, may ingest an adequate amount of iron to withstand teh symptoms of anaemia but not necessarily iron deficiency. 

For example:

1. Have you ever had a day where you don't feel tired or weak but still aren't performing as well as you usually do?
2. Do you ever feel mentally, that you cant push yourself or you suddenly snap due to a terrible performance and lose yourself down a wormhole of poor performance followed unjustifiably harsh criticism.
3. Do you ever say to yourself "ah i'll finish five minutes earlier today," or you may just not be able to physically cope fulfilling a full hour of exercise.

At the time you may not associate these with a lack of iron in your body but they are signs and symptoms of your body not having the optimum stores of iron that it needs. It can be difficult to notice, and rightfully so! Your 55 minutes of training may have been just as taxing as compared to a normal day where you have performed 60 minutes. And sure, whats 5 minutes in the grand scheme o things. 

Wrong!

Its in the final stretch where we are pushing ourselves. Yeah sure you might not find a reduction in speed or strength or power but you'r not going to fulfill your potential. Fulfilling optimum iron stores can prevent such things from occurring. 

The mental state of an athletes mind is a sensitive one, and those who are amateurs, regular exercisers or just trying to lose a few stone before summer know all to well the struggles that go on inside your head when you're not allowed to eat the food you do so desire. Similar mental afflictions can occur when iron deficiency is in place. And again we usually wont associate such symptoms with iron until its too late and we suddenly have full blown anaemia. 

Ensuring you eat enough!

The RDA intake for men is 8mg/day vs. 18mg/day for women. It is a well known fact that women require more iron to replace that which is lost during the menstrual cycle. The upper limit that should not provide any adverse effects in both men and women is 45mg. So we can see there is a lot of wiggle room here. 

The exercising individual will always require an increased amount of iron compared to non-exercising individuals. This is based upon a number of principles:

• Footstrike Haemolysis: A breakdown of red bloodcells causes a release and excretion of iron out of the body within athletes - particularly endurance athletes.
• Increased demand on energy production of which iron is heavily involved, especially within the Electron Transport Chain.
• Mental stressors involved in competition and heavy training schedules.

So what are the best sources of iron (I'm sure you know of red meat, but there are more!) :

• Non-Haem based Iron:

Mushrooms

Grains

Peaches

Coconut

Asparagus

Kale

• Haem-Based Iron:

Meat & Poultry

We have an abundance of sources to chose from when it comes to iron. A varied choice is often the best option. Remember too that the examples listed above are just some of the best sources, others do exist.

Signing out,

E.

Monday Blues: Pet Peeves At The Gym

There are no words or actions strong enough to express my annoyance at how quickly our weekend has disappeared and the demands of our overseers (employers) and financial contracts come calling. Very quickly we our thrown back into the joy that is: phonecalls, paperwork, clients, manual labor, cleaning and selling. 

The result is a depressed, bitter, hypersensitive employee, ready to bite the head off the first person who is brave enough to talk to us. So as i gather my clothes, trainers, chalk and supplements to head off the gym I cant help but think of the awfully annoying situations we all face when we head to the gym. So here are my top 5:

1. A cluttered gym floor: full of un-racked weight plates, dumbbells, water bottles, towels, shakers, shoes, chalk, belts, phones, supplements, energy bar wrappers, cleaning tissues and spillages.

We all see those messy people who leave the gym looking like a crash site. People we must remember that when you go into a gym, it is NOT YOUR GYM. You are paying for the privilege to use someone elses gym. Could you imagine if someone came to your house to workout and left your home gym looking like the above picture? You would freak out! So as a guide i want you all to follow the list below, ensuring you respect each and every gym member and gym provider:

• Strip the bar of weights when you're done with it.
• Put the dumbbells back on the rack when your finished with them.
• When you've drank your water and finished your energy bar, put the rubbish in the bin. 
• If you're not finished your drink, place it neatly out of the way, NOT in the middle of the gym floor.
• If you spill anything or notice you've left a rather large sweat patch, clean it up! Use the tissue and cleaning liquid provided!
• The same goes for any spillages of supplements or chalk. If not cleaned up soon, these can stain and small!
• Then put the tissue you've used, into the bin! Do not just throw it anywhere.
• If training barefoot or in sock, leave your trainers neatly to the side, away from everyone else. 
• The same goes for belts, straps and chains.
• And keep your phone in your pocket (better yet, keep it in your locker). Too many phones get broken in the gym because they've been left in stupid places.

2. Groups/Lazyness/Phone users:

Guys, remember why we all go to the gym.......To work out! Exercise! Become healthy! There is nothing wrong with chatting for a minute or two with your friends or colleagues at the gym but please don't do it at the expense or other people's workout, or your own. Gyms can become very busy, very quickly and people often have to squeeze the gym into a very busy time schedule so please, when you're done with a machine, move quickly out of the way or move onto your next exercise. If you want to socialize, go to Starbucks. Again, the same goes to those who for example are bench pressing, finish a set of 12 reps then lay down on the bench for half an hour before they move onto the next one! Keep pushing yourself! Power lifters or those of disciplined strength building programs are the minority who should be resting for longer periods of time, so, when you are done with a set, time yourself until the next, or, get some help from a trainer to properly design a program. And if you're excessively using your phone instead of working out, leave it in the locker!

3. People who make fun of those who are fat/overweight/obese/heavy (whatever the current PC term is) who are clearly at the gym because they are trying to lose that weight!

Why! Why! Why! Why! Why! Anyone who I ever see doing this is promptly asked to leave! Bullying of any sort is wrong and I have no respect at all for those who I catch doing it. People who are fat (and yes i will use the word fat) are individuals are image and body conscious. They have been driven by society to feel that they have to look like a fitness model for people to pay attention to them. Often they are lonely, scared and quiet BUT more often than not they are more genuine and friendly than the ripped-to-shreds guy or sexy hourglass figure girl next to you. You who makes fun of fat people, do not know their story, you do not know how or why that person is overweight (you are maybe even the reason why) and you certainly are in no place to make fun of them for trying to live a healthier lifestyle. They have taken the all important step towards preventing the many chronic illnesses that they are at risk to: lowering their cholesterol, lowering their blood pressure, lowering their blood sugars and lowering their waistline measurements. In fact to put it plainly if you make fun of someone going to the gym because they are fat, your are effectively saying you do not want them to be healthy and you would rather they developed a chronic disease like diabetes, heart disease or cancer. Doesn't sound too nice at all when you put it like that. Anyone who has felt victimized because of bullying keep an eye out for a future blog on the topic. But for now, I have provided a couple of links below for organisations you can contact for help and support:

http://www.stopbullying.gov/
http://www.nationalbullyinghelpline.co.uk/
http://www.samaritans.org/

4. Posers

Now I can sympathize with pulling a few poses in the mirror once or twice a workout. It's nice to see that pump have an almighty effect on your muscle and its good to track your progress. But, please don't make a habit of it. We as gym users do not want to tred on eggshells walking in and around all your flamboyant poses in front of the dumbbell rack. We just want to lift our weights and get on with our workout, which is what you should be doing too! If you want to spend half an hour just posing, do it at home!

5. Bro-science guy/girl

These are the guys/girls that tell us "you have to drink your protein shake within 5 minutes after your workout or it doesn't have any effect" or, "lift light weights for 50 repetition sets for 5 sets and that will tone you up and help you lose weight". There are a multitude of these expressions collectively known as Bro-Science or simply just: "rubbish." In case anyone is wondering, those two statements above are FALSE. It is comments like these that drive fitness professionals like myself mad because we have to spend 15 minutes of every one hour slot explaining to clients, that what they have been told during the week by their gym buddies is wrong and then we explain why its wrong and then we explain the correct answer. This useless information usually comes from people who have heard or read something through the grapevine who spin it off as the gospel truth, which it then falls into a game of gym chinese whispers and finally rests on another poor soul who adapts it 100% to his lifestyle. If you hear something that doesn't quite sound right, then read around the topic first. Or ask a trainer or nutritionist. Don't immediately tell everyone its the new secret to fat loss or muscle building! That being said, below is a link to a very funny guy called Dom, who is obviously joking around in his videos, but the stuff he comes off with are the type of things people preach as Gods divine word. Have a watch to see what i mean:

As I finish this blog I've very quickly realized that there are many other pet peeves, so there may well be another similar blog in the future. But for now, comment your pet peeves below, let me know what you hate/dislike at the gym!

Ethan