Edited by Ivan Mercolini
Excess element
We have seen so far that iron is extremely important for endurance competitive athletes and demanding cardio fitness practitioners, precisely because the correct intake of qs. element allows an adequate presence of hemoglobin and therefore the correct supply of oxygen to the muscles.
A 10% reduction in hemoglobin leads to a drop in performance of over 25%, which, in certain competitive activities, is equivalent to the difference between the first and the last place.
I also explained how this precious element has a low bioavailability (10% at best), among other things worse in a meal mixed with fibers (phytic acid binds to it to form an insoluble salt).
Well, these points have led several trainers - especially in recent years - to recommend doses up to 100-200mg / day of iron, as a supplement for their students. The idea was (and unfortunately still is) that the more iron was taken, the more aerobic capacity was increased. This is not the case at all. The human body reacts to excess iron, greatly limiting intestinal absorption, so most of the integration ends up in the toilet (in the form of dark stools and, in the case of prolonged overload, frankly diarrhea). And this is good, since the body has little ability to dispose of excess iron.
I have already mentioned that iron is only partially disposed of with sweat. The real loss is with the menstrual cycle and in any case with bleeding in general. So much so that to eliminate it, when it is present at dangerous levels, one resorts to bleeding.
I mentioned the side effects of its accumulation, but there is another little-mentioned effect: the increase in bacterial infections; I therefore take the opportunity to open an important parenthesis.
Organisms to survive require iron, including bacteria. Lactobacilli are an exception, they colonize the small intestine at birth and guarantee little protection against infections and the digestion of breast milk . The mother does not transmit iron from the breast, just to avoid the development of pathogenic bacteria. The newborn, already born with an adequate supply of iron (about 75mg per kilo), does not need exogenous recruitment up to about a year. This is good. Because, I repeat, iron intake would lead to the development and survival of pathogenic bacteria in the intestine with consequent formation of infections. Being a delicate infant, infections could also be very dangerous due to its safety.
Why did I open this bracket? To signal that various manufacturers of artificial milk, irrationally, continue to introduce iron in their preparations, when breast milk does not. Iron from artificial milk feeds bacteria that would not survive without it. The past cases of infant botulism epidemic show the above.
Now, unlike children, adult athletes do not become infected until death or serious exposure to the disease, but what is cited serves to make people understand the danger of excess iron and how human ignorance can damage rather than benefit man . Do not make the mistake of seeing science as a kind of omnipotent divinity, as was once done with regard to religious organizations. It is science made of men, and among them are enlightened and foolish. If nature does not pass iron for breast milk, there is a profound why; when you want to try to improve nature, you have to do it with lead feet, with caution, trying first to understand its reasons. But our economic system is based on irrational consumption and capital accumulation. Whoever holds the threads wants to push you to consume, to the superfluous, there are inoculated inexistent needs. So we try to perfect the artificial milk trying to make it better than the human one, in order to convince the mothers to adopt it even if they have breast milk, making them believe that the powdered product is better for their child. Similar nonsense is recorded in every field. For example, man has evolved for millions of years under the beneficial sun rays. In recent decades the population has been made to believe that the sun is a sort of monster that destroys our skin, which must be defended with filtering sun creams. If the sun damages the skin, it does not explain how the African tribal populations survive, equatorial, nor how humanity has come to this day. Instead, be aware that recent research (Free Radical Biology and Medicine Journal 2006) has shown that the most well-known creams amplify the aging effect of the skin, penetrating deeply into the epidermis and here increasing the effect of solar rays in the production of radicals free.
What the sun has not done for millions of years, man is doing it alone, with his own hands. How to shoot yourself in the foot. My advice is that you learn to expose yourself to the sun gradually, understanding that nature is your friend, not an enemy, and that the sun, taken in moderation and avoiding the hours of heat, can only do you good. Your epidermis is not a sort of "icy cacchina" that melts in the rays of light. In short: leave the various creams to pastry shops.
I could go on for a long time in the list of "somarate" (for example on the red wine / HDL ratio, just to laugh a little, or to list the 880 neurotoxic chemical compounds present in the different products for the "cure" of the person), but for now I will stop here in order not to miss out on the subject nor be accused of conspiracy. Maybe in the closing notes I'll leave some other tips.
Let's go back to our iron and let's see what, at this point, must be the correct dosage to improve aerobic capacity ....
