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Sometimes, what feels like anxiety may not be only because of stress. Nutritionist Rashi Chowdhary says that low iron stores in the body can also be linked to symptoms such as tiredness, restless legs, poor sleep and feeling constantly on edge.
Chowdhary says that women dealing with anxiety along with fatigue, 2 am restless legs or hair fall should also look at their iron levels. She states that a ferritin test can give more information about the body's stored iron.
She explains that haemoglobin and ferritin do different jobs. Haemoglobin shows the iron being used by the body, while ferritin gives an idea of how much iron the body has stored. "It's like hemoglobin it's the cash in your wallet and ferritin is your actual bank balance," the nutritionist adds.
"You're wired and tired. Your body is exhausted by the end of the day but your brain can't switch off. Years where Indian women lose years. Your hemoglobin comes back normal. So everyone stops looking only. And that's the wrong test," she says. So, a person can have normal haemoglobin but still have low iron stores.
Chowdhary says that low iron can also affect sleep and may be linked to restless legs syndrome. It is also important for the brain and helps the body make chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin.
She adds that people should not look at ferritin alone. She suggests checking it along with CRP, a blood test that can show inflammation in the body.
Chowdhary says ferritin levels of around 15 may be marked as normal by some laboratories. However, she points out to clinical guidelines for restless legs syndrome that consider iron treatment when ferritin is 75 or lower in certain cases.
She also says that more than 50% of women she sees in her practice have low ferritin even when their haemoglobin is normal. "So if your CRP is somewhere above two three then it's a problem," she adds.
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