Should athletes take an iron supplement?
Only if there is severe anemia due to severe training, but you have to be cautious as excessive iron can be toxic and damaging. Excessive iron accumulation can contribute to diabetes, liver disease and heart disease and joint damage.
The best is to use serum ferritin as a guideline Values below 20mcg/l for females and below 30mcg/l for males indicate depleted reserves.
Latest findings support current recommendations to use iron supplements for nonanaemic physically active women with low ferrtitin levels. Supplementation in these case exert little effect on haemoglobin concentration and red blood cells volume. Any improved exercise capacity most likely comes from increased muscle oxidative capacity, not increases in the blood's oxygen transport capacity.
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