iron deficiency anemia can be a

debilitating condition

as you may already know if you've been

diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia

this video is going to help you a lot

because i'm going to give you some

information in it that you may

never have heard before iron deficiency

anemia is very very common across the

world

more than a billion and a half people

suffer from it

symptoms include fatigue weakness pale

skin

shortness of breath dizziness pica which

means you have the

overwhelming desire to eat dirt or clay

or ice

and leg tingling those are the most

common symptoms

the most common causes of iron

deficiency anemia are either just not

eating enough iron

or not absorbing enough iron and that's

what this video is really going to help

you understand

or you're losing blood from your body

somewhere that you may or

may not know about so if you're having

any of these symptoms or if you've been

diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia

definitely follow up with your doctor to

make sure you don't have

some occult or hidden bleeding that

you're not aware of

but then after you've got that situated

then it's time to worry about

number one eating enough iron number two

absorbing

enough iron that's very very important

i'm dr ken berry a family physician with

20 years of clinical experience

and i'm going to give you what may be

your iron deficiency anemia

solution the majority of the iron you

eat is absorbed through

your duodenum which is the first part of

your small intestine

most doctors know this you may or may

not have known this

uh but there is a bell curve

distribution

for your personal ability

to absorb iron from your diet and it

it is partly genetic but it's also

partly the food

that you're eating or the food that

you're not eating many many doctors

think that we all absorb iron the same

exact way and in the same exact

amount and that's just not true some

people are very good at absorbing iron

from their diet some people are very

bad at absorbing iron from their diet

there's a bell curve distribution like

this

this graphic so most people are right in

the middle of this chart they

absorb iron color blue well some people

are on one end of the curve and they

absorb it very very well

out of their diet other people absorb

iron very very poorly from their diet

especially if they're not eating the

right kind of iron

in their diet there are two basic kinds

of iron you can get from your diet

there's plant-based iron which is called

non-heme iron and we won't get into what

that name means

uh this is by far the most common iron

that everybody around the world

gets in their diet uh the problem is

is that there are things in plants

called phytic acid

called polyphenols and call fiber which

can inhibit

your absorption of the iron that's

contained in the plant-based food

the most common sources of plant-based

iron that you've probably been told to

eat lots of

are spinach kale fortified cereals

uh dried fruit apricots raisins

and beans lentils soybeans and then you

may have also been told to take

an iron supplement or a multivitamin

with iron

the problem with plant-based non-heme

iron is that we don't absorb a lot of it

none of us do

even the very best absorbers can only

absorb up to 12 percent

give or take of the non-heme iron in

plant foods

some of us only absorb two percent of it

because of the polyphenols the phytic

acid and the fiber

and so if you are a poor absorber you

can eat all the spinach and kale

and soybean stuff that you want and

you're just not going to get enough iron

absorbed into your body that your body

can actually use

and the iron found in iron supplements

and prescription iron pills are

notoriously

poorly absorbed and much of them remain

in your

your gastrointestinal system and wind up

in your colon which leads to the most

common side effect

of iron supplements and iron

prescriptions which is constipation

so if you've been eating tons of

fortified cereals that are supposedly

high in iron

and lots of dark green leafy vegetables

which are

high in iron but perhaps you can absorb

them then what i'm about to talk about

next may surprise you but it also may be

the key that unlocks your prison

of iron deficiency anemia the iron found

in

animal foods like meat and eggs is

called

heme iron and it is a different

uh molecular kind of iron than you would

find in plants

it is much much more absorbable

and so even if a animal-based source of

iron has less iron than a plant-based

source

you're probably still going to get more

usable iron

from the animal-based source meat and

eggs than you would get from a

plant-based source because you're able

to absorb

so much more of the heme iron versus the

non-heme iron

great sources of heme iron in

animal-based foods are

any liver at all from any animal is

going to be a great source of heme iron

many of the a serving of many livers

will give you almost a full day supply

of the iron that your body actually

needs to and can absorb

to use to correct your iron deficiency

anemia

other great sources are anchovies and

sardines

any beef any any meat uh

muscle flesh of an animal is going to be

a good source of iron some are a little

better than others

but if you if you are one of those

people who just can't bring yourself

to eat soft fluffy mammals which i

totally get that i understand you can

still get great sources of animal based

heme iron

from clams oysters mussels

uh any poultry chicken or turkey or any

other poultry is a good

source of iron uh any seafood whatsoever

and then any egg and pasture raised eggs

whether the chickens or turkey have

actually been allowed to go out and eat

real

chicken and turkey food have better iron

and

more absorbable iron but even the cheap

eggs from the grocery store even the

cheap canned oysters or clams or mussels

any of these are really good sources of

highly absorbable

heme iron most heme iron is absorbed at

a rate from

20 to 40 percent and so

if you go back to the bell curve if

you're one of those very very poor

absorbers

of non-heme iron then adding just a

little bit of animal food

into your diet meat and eggs or

hopefully liver

you're going to get so much more iron

from just a small portion

of the meat than you would get from the

plants

most dairy foods are not really that

great of a source of

heme iron definitely skim milk low fat

milk two percent milk those are not

going to give you much iron if any at

all

uh parmesan cheese and then all of the

different

goat cheeses are the best dairy options

if you're trying to get iron

from dairy now listen up this is very

important

if you have made an ethical or religious

decision

not to eat meat in your diet

that's okay but here's what you've got

to understand if you're a poor absorber

on the bell curve then you're never

going to correct your iron deficiency

anemia

unless you add in some kind of animal

based heme iron into your diet so that

you can actually absorb it

and your body can actually use it this

is what i call

therapeutic meat okay now there are

multiple examples

where religions have made exemptions for

people's health care

a good example is a jewish rabbi

has said that it's okay for jews to use

desiccated pork thyroid in the form of

armor nature

wp or thyroid because it's therapeutic

and so even though jews are told not to

eat pork

they can use this product because it has

a therapeutic benefit that they perhaps

can't get

from the synthetic thyroid replacement

hormones so i want you to consider

having a therapeutic meat exemption

in whatever your ethical diet vegan the

vegetarian

whether it's just ethical or whether

it's religious

you really need to think your health

takes

precedent over most of the things in

your life if you're not healthy if

you're constantly fatigued and short of

breath

and considering eating the ice out of

the inside of your freezer because

you're so iron deficient

think how much more productive you would

be think how much more uh

successful you would be promoting things

that you believe in

making money taking care of your family

if you actually could get rid of those

symptoms and get rid of your iron

deficiency anemia

so i want you to really think about this

and consider a therapeutic meat option

and not that you're going to enjoy the

eggs or meat not that you're going to

proclaim that you're doing this not that

you're going to

espouse this to other people you're

doing this for your health

and i think that is ethical and and it

makes very good sense to me

now you don't have to eat mammals to get

your therapeutic meat

treatment you don't even have to eat

things with faces animals with faces you

could literally

get your heme iron from clams oysters

and mussels and from eggs so you never

had to eat anything with a face and so

i'm i hope you understand i'm being very

respectful i understand you've made a

choice

ethically to not eat animals or to not

eat mammals or wherever

your line of ingestion happens to fall

and i respect that but at the same time

i don't want you to suffer for the rest

of your life

with iron deficiency anemia or wind up

having heart failure or wind up having

to have blood transfusions because of

this

disabling iron deficiency anemia that

you currently have

the most at risk populations for

developing iron deficiency anemia

are children of all ages uh reproductive

age

women pregnant women and then the

elderly these are the people most at

risk for developing this

and these are the people that regardless

of what ethical decisions you've made

about what you're going to eat or not

eat

you really need to think about the

therapeutic meat option

in order to reclaim your health people

who are frequent blood donors can have

this congestive heart failure patients

can have iron deficiency anemia

people with gut conditions like

ulcerative colitis crohn's

celiac disease or if you've had a row

and y

gastric bypass surgery you are at

increased risk for iron deficiency

anemia

and even though you may not think it's

ethical to consume

animal products i really think you

should consider the therapeutic meat

option

another big population of people who

suffer from iron deficiency anemia

and oftentimes they don't know why and

maybe even their doctor doesn't know

is people who take proton pump

inhibitors like ass effects

prevacid protonix and nexium these block

your stomach acid and stomach acid is

vital for the proper absorption of iron

from your diet and so if you're taking

one of those pills and you've been iron

deficient anemic

and your doctor didn't know why i

couldn't figure it out that's probably

why

in children iron is absolutely mandatory

for them to develop into their full

potential as adults

and one there there are many parts of

the world where there's just no animal

food available or

religious uh rules prevent children from

eating enough

heme iron and animal based products in

order to not be iron fishing anemic

in the u.s and other modern societies

it's very common for a child to be an

accidental vegan

and i've got a video about that i'll

have it pop up

here or here so that you can make sure

that your child is not an accidental

vegan

but that can lead to very severe iron

deficiency anemia

and the doctor may not even be able to

figure that one out either

i've included some research links in the

show notes down below

if in case you want to do some further

reading this is dr berry i'll see you

next time