When your body lacks iron, it causes an abnormal drop in red blood cells because iron is essential for making hemoglobin protein. This protein is found in red blood cells and lets blood carry oxygen to all parts of the body.
If your body doesn’t have enough hemoglobin, tissues and muscles won’t get enough oxygen and can’t work well. This leads to anemia. There are many causes of anemia, but iron deficiency anemia is the most common worldwide.
Common causes of iron deficiency include not eating enough iron due to a bad diet, inflammatory bowel diseases, increased iron needs during pregnancy, heavy blood loss during periods, or internal bleeding.
Iron deficiency, no matter the cause, can worsen your health, reduce focus, and cut your work productivity. Signs and symptoms depend on anemia level, how fast it develops, your age, and health status. Some people may have no symptoms.
Here are the top 10 signs and symptoms caused by iron deficiency.
1- Unusual fatigue
Feeling very tired is one of the most common symptoms of iron deficiency. It affects over half of people with low iron. This happens because your body needs iron to make hemoglobin in red blood cells, which helps carry oxygen around the body. Without enough hemoglobin, tissues and muscles don’t get enough oxygen, so they lose energy and you feel tired.
Since tiredness is a normal part of modern life, it's hard to diagnose iron deficiency just by feeling tired.
2- Pale face and skin color
Pale skin and eyelids are common signs of iron deficiency. Pale is usual with moderate or severe anemia because hemoglobin in red blood cells gives blood its red color. When hemoglobin drops from iron deficiency, blood looks less red and skin loses its healthy color.
- Pale is often one of the first signs doctors look for as a clue of iron deficiency but you still need a blood test to be sure.
- People with iron deficiency might have pale skin all over or pale just in one spot like the face, gums, inside lips, lower eyelids, or even nails.
- If you pull your lower eyelid down, the inside layer should be a lively red. If it looks pale pink or yellow, it could mean you have iron deficiency.
3 - Shortness of breath
When hemoglobin is low due to iron lack, your muscles don’t get enough oxygen to do normal activities. So you breathe faster as your body tries to get more oxygen.
If you find yourself short of breath doing normal daily tasks you usually do easily like walking, climbing stairs, or exercising, it could be due to iron deficiency.
4 - Frequent headaches and dizziness
Iron deficiency can cause headaches often linked with dizziness or lightheadedness because low hemoglobin levels in red blood cells can reduce oxygen flow to the brain. This can make blood vessels in the brain swell, causing pressure and headaches.
Though headaches have many causes, repeated headaches and dizziness might be signs of iron deficiency.
5 - Irregular heartbeats
Irregular heartbeats can be a symptom of anemia from iron deficiency because low hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the body, makes the heart beat harder to get more oxygen. This can cause the heart to beat irregularly or feel like it’s racing. In some cases, it may lead to enlarged heart or heart failure.
You need to have iron deficiency for a long time to experience this.
6 - Dry and damaged skin and hair
Dry and damaged skin and hair are key signs of iron deficiency because when your body lacks iron it sends limited oxygen to vital places like organs and other body tissues. That leaves skin and hair oxygen-starved, so they get dry and weak.
It's totally normal to lose some hair when washing and daily cleaning, but if you lose big clumps it might be due to iron deficiency.
7 - Tongue and mouth pain and swelling
Sometimes just looking inside or around your mouth can show if you have iron-deficiency anemia. Hemoglobin protein in blood cells supports muscles, including those in your tongue.
When hemoglobin drops due to iron deficiency your tongue can look pale. Very low hemoglobin can cause tongue swelling and inflammation. Iron deficiency can also dry out your mouth or cause red sores at mouth corners.
8 - Restless leg syndrome
Restless leg syndrome is a strong urge to move your legs while resting or a weird itch in your feet and legs. It’s usually worse at night and people with it often struggle to get good sleep.
The causes of restless leg syndrome aren’t fully clear. But about 25% of people with it think it’s due to anemia from iron deficiency. The lower your iron level, the worse the symptoms get.
9 - Brittle nails or nails that grow like a spoon
This is one of the less common symptoms and usually shows in severe anemia cases. In late stages of iron deficiency, nails can grow like a spoon with the middle dipping down and edges rising, making a spoon-like round shape.
10 - Other possible symptoms that might indicate iron deficiency
There are many other symptoms that can show low iron levels in your body but these are less common and might be caused by many things other than iron deficiency.
Craving strange things: This often means a strong urge to eat ice, soil, dirt, chalk, or paper. It can be a sign of iron deficiency or happen during pregnancy.
Feeling very anxious: Iron deficiency can cause low oxygen supply to body tissues which may make you feel anxious.
Cold hands and feet: Iron deficiency causes less oxygen to reach the hands and feet, making them get cold faster than usual.
More frequent infections: Since iron is key for a healthy immune system, lacking it can lead to getting sick more often than usual.
