Pumping iron.

In my clinic I have an awesome diagnostic tool called Hemaview. I get one drop of blood from my patient's finger (don't be a sook, it doesn't hurt), which goes on a slide under my microscope that's connected to a flat screen monitor. On the monitor is the live footage of what's going on in your blood! It's like a little solar system of red blood cells rushing past the screen like a river with white blood cells (your immune system) slowly crawling around like lazy sloths. Today we're going to talk about the cells we might see in your blood if you were lacking iron -which is unbelievable how many people are!

See on this slide how some red blood cells are smaller than the others? They're called microcytes and indicate an iron deficiency.







"Oh no Sir! There's a hotdog in your blood!" Just kidding, this elongated red blood cell in amongst the normal circular cells is an elliptocyte.

Both of these signs indicate iron deficiency. So if you've been getting head spins, dragging yourself through the day and are looking more pastey than Snow White, here are some awesome iron boosting suggestions that will have you bounding through the day:

© If you’re eating red meat, have a salad on the side with tomato or a squeeze of lemon juice in water before you’re meal as the vitamin C will increase the acidity of your gut to increase iron absorption
© Cut up parsley and add on top of salads and eggs
© Sprinkle toasted pinenuts over your salad
© Make a fresh pesto with lots of pinenuts and parsley
© Throw some parsley into your veggie juice
© Before bed have a glass of hot milk with some molasses
© Sweeten your chai or cup of tea with molasses
© Add molasses and wheat germ to your smoothie
© Snack on a handful of pinenuts, dried figs and dried apricots
© Google “green smoothie” and add some spinach
© Choose baby spinach in your wraps over iceberg lettuce
© If you’re not vegetarian, make meatballs, spag bol, rissoles, hamburgers, beef stirfry, lamb casserole, satay beef wraps
© Add bok choy at the end of cooking your strifry
© Make a spinach and ricotta pie

We love BioCeuticals Iron Sustain ($14.95 for 30 tabs) as a highly absorbable supplement.

Book in with a naturopath who uses Hemaview to see if there are any hotdogs in your blood!