A clear majority of the people, especially womxn that come to see me are iron deficient, and I’m also seeing more children with iron deficiency.

Many people come feeling exasperated, maybe you can relate? Having consistently low iron stores despite a diligent effort to increase iron in your diet, taking supplements, or organising infusions. You may have an initial increase in ferritin levels (your iron stores), then it plateaus or within a few months is low again.

We need to think more deeply about the qualities of iron to understand why you might tend towards iron deficiency and anaemia. My work as a Naturopath is to think holistically and ask the questions:

• are you absorbing the iron

• how is your digestion

• is there anything in your diet reducing your absorption

• is there inflammation at the heart of this low iron (low iron is a secondary marker for inflammation)

Then, most importantly, my questions are ‘what does iron deficiency feel like to you’ and ‘how does this relate to your life?’. This gives us a much deeper insight into your remedies.

Supplementation, supporting absorption, and increasing iron in the diet is important, but doesn’t always resolve iron deficiency. It is often a tendency that needs support. It becomes an opportunity to listen in a deeper way to the language of your body.

Why is it that people with iron deficiency are also often:

• anxious

• highly sensitive

• shy

• have an aversion to conflict

• find speaking up for themselves difficult

• are very empathic

• are experiencing high stress, or have experienced shock

• tend to have sensitive hearts (palpitations, arrhythmia)

• or sensitive tummies (digestive upset, multiple food sensitivities)

Can you relate to these characteristics? Perhaps this is you to a tee. Why do we experience cold hands and feet, shortness of breath, tiredness and headaches when we’re low in iron?

To answer these questions we need to study life (one of my favourite things to do, personally!). Rudolf Steiner said “To truly know the world, look deeply within your own being; to truly know yourself, take real interest in the world.". Iron is an incredible element, and to understand iron deficiency let’s get to know this beautiful element’s nature.

Iron has alot to do with how grounded, warm, embodied and confident we feel

You are probably reading this because, despite all your efforts to increase your iron, low iron levels persist. If you have a period, you may have been told that low iron is just going to be a reality while you have your period. You may even have been prescribed the pill to stop your period to try to increase your iron stores. 

Today let’s take a look at this tendency for women to be iron deficient, more so than men, and how this relates the interesting polarity between Iron and Copper. The more deeply we understand nature, the more we understand ourselves and our tendency to iron deficiency.

The daily iron requirements are around 80% higher for women, and 20% of Australian women don’t reach these daily requirements compared with 3% of men. It is young women between the ages of 14 and 18 years old that get the least iron in their diets, 40% of this age group don’t reach their daily iron needs. We also know that women are more commonly vegetarian or vegan in Australia, especially in this age group when periods are beginning.

Typically, iron intake and needs remain relatively stable for men across the span of their lives. Women tend to lower levels of iron in their bodies, and iron needs change throughout life, during phases of menstruation, pregnancy, breastfeeding and menopause. 

Learning about these symbols and archetypes, and the nature of things lends us more food for thought as to why it is more common for menstruating people to be lower in iron, than people without a cycle, beyond it simply being a downside of having a period. Or even, a fault of nature.