Low-Iron/Angular Cheilitis - EW

Well my angular cheilitis is completely gone and has remained at bay for a few months now. Hooray for not looking like I had some STD of the face or something, god that sounds gruesome. 

Anyway, I really think it was the iron. In reading around the interwebs, I learned a good bit about dietary iron. I think I have (maybe always) had quite a few of the symptoms of iron deficiency, including:

• extreme fatigue and feeling of weakness - YUP
• light headedness - I PASSED OUT BUCK-NAKED ON THE HARDWOOD FLOOR ONCE, THE SOUND OF MY ASS SLAPPING THE FLOOR WHEN I LANDED STILL HAUNTS DAVE
• irritability - I HAVE REEAAAALLLLYYYY NOTICED THIS IS BETTER (sorry Dave)
• headache - OCCASIONALLY
• low blood pressure with position change from sitting to standing up - SEE ASS HITTING THE FLOOR COMMENT ABOVE
• finger nails that become thin and brittle, they may grow abnormally and get a spoon-shaped appearance - GROSS, BUT YES
• reduction in immunity and increased vulnerability to infection - OR IT IS JUST ALL THE GERMS ON THE TUBE, THE JURY IS OUT ON THIS ONE
• disturbed sleep - YEAH SOMETIMES

In any case, my legs feel amazing lately. I used to sometimes start a run or a swim and just have nothing in the tank, no matter what I had eaten, and I would just give up and go home. Now those occasional days of fatigue are literally gone. Plus, my nails and hair grow super-fast, and I am generally less annoyed at everything Dave says to me - which is nice.

All that being said, I am firm believer in the placebo effect. This iron-thing could all be in my head, I am very suggestable and impressionable after all. However, there seems to be something to this for my body. I am definitely going to continue on with the vitamin/mineral supplement, at least through the end of my marathon training. We'll see what happens when I get back to the U.S. and start cooking more often. Maybe I can keep my iron levels up with a more focused, steak-filled diet.

Keep on running!