American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 3, 3-10, Copyright © 1955 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

The Importance of Nutritional Factors in the Pathogenesis of Iron-Deficiency Anemia

¹ From the Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis 10, Mo.

Nutritional factors are of major importance in the production or prevention of iron-deficiency anemia. Healthy persons probably maintain a positive iron balance by a narrower margin than was formerly believed. Approximately 5 to 10 per cent food iron seems to be assimilated by normal adults; daily retention on a diet containing 12 to 15 mg. of iron, therefore, may be estimated to be about 0.6 to 1.5 mg. The amount of iron lost from the body each day, in all ways except as blood, seems to be between 0.5 and 1 mg. The added requirements of children and young women to compensate for growth needs and menstrual flow Place them in a precarious state of iron balance, so that poor diet or poor absorption can readily lead to the production of hypochromic anemia. In adult men or post-menopausal women, however, nutritional factors appear to be of less importance in the pathogenesis of iron deficiency. If purely nutritional iron deficiency ever occurs in these people, many years would be required for its production. It is more likely that occult, intermittent bleeding, often difficult to detect, must also be present along with inadequate diet or malabsorption before severe degrees of iron deficiency develop.

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