Distracted Young Women May Need More Iron

April 29, 2004

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STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Young women who have trouble concentrating might

just need more iron in their diets, researchers say.

Women in the Penn State study who were iron-deficient performed

significantly worse on memory and attention tests than healthy women,

and an iron supplement was all it took to correct the problem.

" We were able to bring it right back to normal, back to the level of

the iron-sufficient women, " said Murray-Kolb, a Penn State

nutritional researcher.

Iron, an oxygen-carrying component of blood, is especially important

for women, whose bodies absorb less iron than men and lose it more

frequently because of blood loss during menstruation.

Doctors have long known that anemia brought on by iron deficiency can

cause fatigue, irritability and difficulty concentrating. But most

research on less-severe iron deficiency has been limited to children,

said Ritchie, director of the dietetics program at Harding

University in Searcy, Ark.

The study, presented last week at an American Society of Nutritional

Sciences conference, found that women ages 18 to 35 suffered many of

the same effects from iron deficiency.

The women were given several computerized tests to gauge attention

and memory. Women who were anemic were both slower and less accurate

than healthy women. Women who were iron-deficient but not anemic

completed the tests as quickly as healthy women but were

significantly less accurate.

Women who did poorly in the initial tests performed as well as the

others after they increased their iron intake.

Scientists said younger women may be particularly at risk for iron

deficiency because of their diet. Red meat is loaded with easily

absorbable iron; fruits and vegetables not only have less iron, the

iron they have is not easily absorbed.

Fully 20 percent of the women in the Penn State study — many of them

university students — were either iron-deficient or anemic.

" Taking a look at the typical college student, they may be

financially strapped, so buying a lot of iron-rich foods may not be

their top priority, especially for females, " Ritchie said.

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