Last Updated on January 7, 2021
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Your body needs iron like it needs oxygen. Iron creates the hemoglobin protein in red blood cells and enables them to carry oxygen around your body. If you don’t have enough iron, your body won’t produce hemoglobin and you’ll end up with iron deficiency anemia.
Anemia hits 1.62 billion people around the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), causing weakness, fatigue, weight loss, insomnia, etc., due to inadequate oxygen in tissues and healthy red blood cells in the body.
We all want to follow healthy, balanced diets to avoid anemia and other health conditions caused by inadequate iron intake so we make sure to eat iron-rich foods or take iron supplements. But do we know when to stop?
Too much iron in the body, also known as iron poisoning and hemochromatosis, can be as damaging as having too little iron. It may cause you to suffer from life-threatening health conditions including liver disease, arthritis, diabetes mellitus, heart failure or heart attack.
