Monday, January 21, 2013

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!

2 comments:

Rich said...

Pretty sure Dave is no less annoying, so the math checks out.

FinnyKnits said...

Hey, you know that I'm a firm believer in supplements after managing to crush my migraines with magnesium supplements when all my doctors' prescriptions turned out to be nothing but chemical BS.

Might be worth getting a blood panel done to tell you whether you're really low in iron and then adjusting your supplement so you're taking the right amount.

I know that sounds like a lot of work, but this desperate migraine-haver finally sacked up and did it and WOW am I glad I did. Nearly two years later and I've only had 3 migraines in 2 years - down from 2 per month.

Good luck, herps.