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Fatigue In Sports

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Serious symptoms of iron deficiency including fatigue and loss of strength greatly affect the athlete’s ability to perform but can be corrected by supplementation. Fatigue upon exertion is an early warning sign of an iron deficient individual, thus prompting immediate action to be taken to correct his or her levels. Kathleen Melanson, an associate professor of nutrition and sports science at the University of Rhode Island, highlighted fatigue upon exertion, when the body is “tax[ed] the most,” as the first telltale sign of insufficient iron levels. For example, a runner with a depleting iron concentration may experience increased fatigue when running up a hill, upon the completion of a wind sprint, or during a competitive race. At these times, …show more content…

If a runner experiences fatigue during the aforementioned examples, they are most likely experiencing an iron deficiency. In addition, from the onset of this excessive fatigue, athletes must ensure they have an adequate amount of iron to satisfy the body’s respiratory demands while competing prior to the exhibition of more severe effects. Persistent and continuous training can perpetuate an individual’s reduced iron status and ultimately hamper their performance as the season progresses. After studying athletes of various sports, the experimenters recorded 27 percent of all athletes had absolute iron deficiency, which was not generally restored post-recuperation, and 70 percent had functional iron deficiency at the conclusion of their seasons. Fourteen percent of athletes exhibited absolute iron deficiency throughout the experiment. Athletes with initially low ferritin levels improved slightly but remained within borderline levels during recuperation. (Reinke). Continuous exercise makes already lowered iron levels fairly …show more content…

Therefore, the amount of hemoglobin in blood is critical to a runner’s capacity to compete. As hemoglobin levels drop, so does an athlete’s ability to perform. Without this knowledge, many runners can potentially suffer from symptoms of an iron deficiency without understanding how or why they can no longer perform as they once could. The directly proportional relationship between the amount of hemoglobin, and therefore iron, and a runner’s ability to compete is important for athletes to understand. Information provided by the medical community can help to ultimately prevent a deficiency from occurring. However, through iron supplementation, athletes can return their levels to the healthy standard to decrease the effect of iron deficiency symptoms on their ability to compete. The authors summarize their findings in the study of treating fatigue in nonanemic female patients with low serum ferritin concentration by providing intravenous iron

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