Iron: Load The Bar Not Your Bloood

Iron in all its rustic and semi rusted glory. It is the passion that fuels many of is and the center of much of our strength no matter our sport. Its always the game of earning the right to take on more iron.



The same shouldn't be true for your mouth. At least for most men. We lack the monthly visitor that keeps women's iron in check each month and generally eat more red meat. Unless your some kind of self destructive freak or a fighter that gets beat on regularly and bleeds like a stuck pig your iron turnover is not at a level that requires you to have a high intake and it can actually be detrimental to us men. Detrimental to the tune of Iron Toxicity. Another case for sure where more is not always better.

I persoanlly have a close friend who after a successful powerlifting career moved on to be a distance runner in the time when they were taughting iron as a great way to increase your Vo2 etc. due to the increased red blood cell count. fast forward to today he is being attacked by his own blood and has to get regular blood lettings just to keep the hemocrit levels in check as they continually leech from stores in his body. Not Fun

We naturally have more Testosterone than woman as well, and T has long been used in anemic patients to fight the disorder. So of again more evidence we don't need as much Iron as our female counterparts.

Just look at the list of some of these side effects of toxic iron levels.

- Raised cardiovascular disease risk due to its pro oxidative nature

- Pro oxidation alone making that ever increasing search for antioxidants somewhat of a mute point.

- polycythemia- the thickening of the blood via raised hemoglobin, sky rocketing red blood cells, raised viscosity of the blood meaning greater cardiac workload, hypertension (high blood pressure), increased stroke risk and poorer blood flow to tissues.

- DNA damage

- cancer development

- diabetes

- elevated ALT and AST

- abnormalities like hemosiderosis and hemochromatosis

- Hepatic damage,

- M.I. [myocardial infarction]

To make things worse many of us take vitamin C. Right?


"The ironic thing is that ascorbic acid actually enhances iron absorption, potentially leading to more iron overload — and among other things, greater oxidation. Double ugh! (Actually, vitamin E would be a much better choice.) For high-iron guys insistent upon their vitamin C intake, it appears best to take it as far away from iron-containing meals as possible to avoid problems." - Dr. Lonnie Lowery

So what can we do to help combat this. God knows I wont halt eating my red meat and other animal flesh that has iron at a bio-available rate many times that of any plant matter.

Its OK, just get some variety in your protein choices. Thank goodness we have milk, and other dairy products like Whey. Eggs as well are a great choice, and better yet both milk and eggs actually "block iron absorption." (again Dr. Lonnie Lowery)

As well get fishy, go for tuna and crab meat, both of which are low iron protein sources.

Choose other iron blocking foods to be staples such as High fiber foods, coffee and tea (Green tea in particular)

Stop using cast iron or stainless steel cookware. Yhea that cast iron pan is great over the camp so only use it those times All other times get a nice no stick pan or bake in ceramic or glass.

Make sure you get an Iron free multi-vitamin, luckily most men's varieties are this way now. Or opt for the elderly versions which are usually void of Iron.

Iron is ever present on food labels, take your time do some checking and don't make those pesky iron fortified foods a staple.



Last but not least "give the gift of life"

That's right give blood on a regular basis. There is no better or faster way to keep your iron in check then drop a quart of blood here and there. You just may be helping someone at the same time as well

So there you go. Hit the iron hit it hard, just don't chew on it.

Special thanks to Dr. Lonnie Lowery and his article and paper on iron. It made this short message to you all an easy job I just gave the short concise version. If you want more and a long list of references I suggest you google his article "Keep the Iron on the Bar"