Have you ever felt depressed, unhappy, and not in the mood to do anything at all without a reason? Do you often seem to have mood swings and feel low in the middle of a day! As your mind trials back to what you have been doing everything seems right, your job going well, your tasks running perfectly and you have no hard feelings of any sort. Yet the reason for such unhappy state of mind must have an explanation!
Let us see how the neurotransmitters in our brain is related to iron essentiality. What kind of food will relieve an eruption in mood swings?
- A State of Unhappiness
Happiness is your way of life, you want to be cheerful and the answer must be found. No matter how healthy you look or how well you dress, your mood has to come back. You must be wondering if your diet is right? Are you taking the right food at the right quantity? Have you missed out the essentials, the nutrients in the food I mean, that would balance your healthy state with a healthy mind? Well, well a blood test would perhaps help? The first thing that strikes you would be, why would I need a blood test for having mood swings? Such a test would give you hemoglobin count in my blood, your sugar level and perhaps if you have any infection of the sort. Knowing that depression is a state of low mood and an extreme or rapid change can affect feelings and the physical well-being of a person, a blood test may be the wisest thing to do. Perhaps an iron essentiality in your body exists.
- What does the blood test say?
After the entire dilemma, a single blood test can show a level of hemoglobin that is below the normal that could be the cause of mood swings. For any age group, a hemoglobin content of less than 10.5 g/DL can make a person anemic leading to tiredness and depression. Anemia is a condition of the body in which too few red blood cells are in circulation. Besides a number of elements that can cause the anemic condition in a person, iron deficiency is the most frequent. Inadequate levels of iron in the body cause decreased the production of red blood cells.
- What is a hemoglobin?
Hemoglobin is the iron-containing protein in your red blood cells that carries oxygen from your lungs to your tissues. The hemoglobin molecule is a tetramer consisting of polypeptide chains, 4 in number. These are known as goblins, consisting of 2 alpha chains that are each 141 amino acids long and 2 beta chains. To each chain is attached an iron-containing molecule known as heme. The heme part of iron releases the oxygen to permit aerobic respiration and provide energy to power the functions of the organism in the process called metabolism. Hemoglobin also acts as a transporter of other gasses such as it carries some of the body’s respiratory product—carbon dioxide.
Iron is an essential nutrient because it is a central part of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the blood. Iron is found in food in two forms, heme, and non-heme iron. Heme iron, which makes up 40 percent of the iron in meat, poultry, and fish, is well absorbed. Non-heme iron, 60 percent of the iron in animal tissue and all the iron in plants (fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts) is less absorbed by the body. Because vegetarian diets only contain non-heme iron, vegetarians should pay special attention of having foods that are high in iron and add techniques of promoting the absorption of iron. Recommendations for iron for vegetarians (including vegans) may be as much as 1.8 times higher than for non-vegetarians. The normal range of hemoglobin for a female is 11.5 – 14.6 g/DL and for males: 12.3 – 16.3 g/DL.
- What are the symptoms of iron deficiency?
Are you experiencing any of the following?
Low Mood/Mood swings
Relationship adjustment
Feel like crying
Demotivated
Tired
Or perhaps you are experiencing these symptoms:
Breathless after little exercise
Heart palpitations
Looking pale
Low appetite
Brittle nails
Mouth edges soreness
Poor concentration
Symptoms are broad-based and include tiredness, irritability and mood swings, loss of appetite (in case of children, especially) incapable of physical exercise, headache, shortness of breath, and restless leg syndrome. Other symptoms include dizziness, fast heart rate, inattentiveness, skin paleness, ringing in the ears, brittle nails, soreness at the edges of the mouth.
Possibly the culprit is an iron deficiency or iron essentiality. Certain practitioners nickname iron as the ‘divorce deficiency’ i.e. many of these related symptoms being the ‘icing on the cake’ for causing breakdown of a relationship. So before deciding to break up, go for a blood test and see where lies the problem.
- Who can have an iron deficiency?
Almost anyone can become deficient in iron at some times of their life besides being sick for any reason. A diet absent in iron can cause iron deficiency in a healthy person. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 7% of toddlers, 4% to 5% of children, 9% to 16% of menstruating females, and 2% of pubescent and adult males have iron deficiency. In many cases, a mild iron deficiency due to low storage in the body may produce symptoms without a result of anemia. Anemia may result from iron or vitamin deficiency, poor nutrition, blood loss (including menstrual bleeding), chronic diseases or inherited disorders of hemoglobin.
Women generally consume less iron than men (due to a lower energy requirement) and may have a greater need for iron, depending on their age. On an average, a menstruating woman loses 30 to 45 mg of iron every month. During pregnancy and delivery, 1 gram of maternal iron is consumed. Normally, breastfeeding a child uses a total of about 1 gram of maternal iron in the first year of life.
- The science of iron deficiency
The impact of the level of iron begins from the brain. The brain comprises of neurotransmitters (NTs) that are chemicals that transmit messages or signals from one nerve ending (called neurons) to another target neuron. The neurotransmitters are synthesized from the amino acid that are available in food sources. The functions that are performed by the body occur due to about 100 identified neurotransmitters or chemical messengers.
How does iron relate to mood swings?
Iron contained in the hemoglobin are carried to the different parts of the body by neurotransmitters (NT). The iron in hemoglobin is therefore a part of the signaling system or NT. Among the numerous biological influences of iron, there are noteworthy scientific testimonies that iron is also important for neurological activity and the process connected in fact by NT signals. If a person has an imbalance level of a certain or a group of neurotransmitters, it may lead to a changed attitude of mind leading to mood swings. As, for example, serotonin, an NT helps maintain sleep, emotional state of the mind and moods. Likewise, norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter that controls memory, learning process and physical stimulation. An imbalance or deficiency of this NT may result in depression of the mind. Iron is a mineral responsible for oxygen transportation in the body transmitted through the NT. It is necessary for immune function and for energy, and not having enough iron can lead to decreased function. Scientifically, the state of the mind, the unhappy situation causing unhappy feelings may actually be the result of insufficient iron content or enough iron essentiality in the hemoglobin.
- How can foods improve our moods?
Food provides the source of both heme and non-heme iron. Sufficient iron supply from daily intake of food that contain iron is important. Together with absorptive capacity of the body iron should be available to all parts of the body through blood circulation. As reflected earlier a healthy cognitive system is essential to regulating mood, and food containing those elements have a profound impact on maintaining normal brain function to promote long-term happiness. Therefore, the essentiaity of iron is crucial for overcoming mood swings.
- Types of iron in food
The iron essentiality in food is met from two sources: animals and plants. There are two types of iron the heme coming from the meat source and non heme coming from vegetables. Iron is absorbed better from heme (meat) sources, although non-heme (plant) iron show improved regulation causing less damage to the body. Iron is an essential mineral used to transport oxygen to all parts of the body. Fatigue or weakness of the body results in a slight deficiency in iron usually referred to as anemic. A chronic deficiency can lead to failure of organs. Contrariwise, high levels of iron lead to the production of harmful free radicals, and interferes with metabolic functions of the body, leading to damage to the heart and liver. However, the human body, naturally regulates iron uptake. Overdose usually occurs if too much of iron supplements are taken. Iron from natural food sources of food is considered safe and healthy.
What foods are high in iron?
Iron from animal sources is known as heme iron and is found in various meats and fish. Iron from plants is well-known as nonheme iron, and is found in certain vegetables including iron-fortified foods such as cereals taken at breakfast. Heme iron has enhanced absorption by the body than nonheme iron. Iron in fish is the best type as an average serving supplies 10 percent of the RDA requirement. An easy example is canned salmon or tuna—- a 6-ounce serving of which comprises of about 1.5 milligrams of iron. Many other varieties of fish also provide iron. Six ounce servings of cod supply 0.8 milligrams; flounder, with 0.6 milligram and haddock, 0.4 milligrams. Both wild-caught and farmed fish supply iron. You will also get 0.6 milligrams of iron from a 6-ounce serving of cooked, farmed trout. High iron containing foods are clams, beef, liver, lamb, nuts, sunflower seeds, beans, dark chocolate, whole grains, dark leafy greens such as spinach and tofu from soya beans.
- Non Vegetable Sources of Iron
Red meat, poultry, pork and sea fishes are high sources of iron. Many people achieve their essentiality of iron ron necessity from such sources. These are the heme sources of iron that the body can easily use.
- Vegetable Sources for Iron
The highest source of non-heme iron is found in beans, peas and lentils, which have between 2 and 5 mg of iron per serving of 1 cup). Cooked lentils, soybeans, red kidney beans, split peas and lima beans are all excellent sources of non-heme iron. Other sources for vegetable lovers include the dark green vegetables—either fresh or cooked—like spinach, collard greens, and asparagus. The Colocasia species of plants have high sources of iron.
Some stone fruits like peaches, plums, dates, and nectarines are noble sources of iron (either fresh or dried. It is also amazing that fruits like cantaloupe, tomatoes, orange can increase the absorptive capacity of iron. The juices of any of these fruits combined are a delightful way to get your daily allowance of iron.
- Non-vegetable, Vegetarian Sources for Iron
For receiving the recommended allowance of iron, vegetarians have a few non-plant options. Iron-enriched foods like bran flakes, breakfast cereals and noodles contain at least 0.7 mg of iron. So do milk and iron-enriched drinks like protein shakes. Nuts and seeds have at least 0.7 mg of iron too, and are a great way to boost iron intake.
The food that are rich in iron both from vegetable and non-vegetable sources are shown for easily reference and choice. The table can be easily used to mix match the food and get the required quantity in a diet.
- How much is enough?
While the general recommendation is 10 to 18 mg of iron per day, these amounts vary based on age and gender. For example, the NIH recommends that pregnant women take 27 mg of iron per day and menstruating women to take 18 mg per day. However, lactating women should only take between 9 and 10 mg of iron per day. The allowance for men varies between 7 to 11 mg per day, depending on age.
- The right food for changing mood?
We have all heard the phrase ‘you are what you eat’, but did you know that a scientific explanation exists between what you eat and the mood you can be in? The chemistry of the brain is influenced by some food that in fact help us to stay happier and calm. Below is a list of high iron foods. The lists provide the high iron heme and non-heme foods by their helping size.. Keeping enough iron in the body is important since it all comes down to the brain. As fatigue, apathy, and mood change is associated with iron essentiality, a deficiency can often lead to depression. Keep your iron levels to normal and lead a happy life free of mood swings.
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