Feel like you’re forever fighting fatigue?
If you feel like you are forever fighting fatigue and tiredness then perhaps it is time to discover the underlying cause for your exhaustion, by visiting your GP. Fatigue is one of the most common complaints in GP practices and a survey revealed that 75% of those visiting their GP for fatigue are women. With over half of these patients revealing that they have experienced fatigue for more than 4 months. This is a considerable amount of time to live with fatigue, which can leave you feeling that it is a challenge to simply get through the day and manage your everyday tasks.
The research revealed that those women that visited their GP for fatigue were given a blood test to help try and detect an underlying cause for their fatigue, with only 9% having an abnormal blood result that was thought to contribute to fatigue. This means that 91% of respondents had normal haemoglobin levels, meaning they were not anaemic. However these women did have lower levels of serum ferritin, which is an indication of low iron stores. The non anaemic women from the study were split into 2 groups with half being given iron supplements to help reduce fatigue and the other group being given a placebo. Those that had the iron supplements experienced a 50% reduction in fatigue.
Dr Chris Steele MBE, Media GP comments: “This is a very insightful study which highlights the importance of women visiting their GP if they are suffering from fatigue, especially if they feel exhausted when they are getting sufficient sleep. It is important that a GP carries out a haemoglobin blood test as well as serum ferritin blood test which will detect anaemia as well as low iron stores. Discovering the underlying cause of fatigue is extremely important in being able to treat it. This study highlights that fatigue can often be linked to low iron levels which is when a natural iron supplement, will be beneficial.”
In conclusion this study highlighted that women commonly suffer from fatigue, which could be partially related to the recurrent monthly menstrual blood loss. When women visit their GP complaining of fatigue they will often only be given a haemoglobin test which will show a normal result, meaning they will not be classified as anaemic. This can lead to these women not being treated by their GP, so they continue to suffer with fatigue. However if the women had been given a serum ferritin blood test, this may have indicated low iron levels, which could be the cause of their fatigue.
In these cases an iron supplement would be beneficial to top up iron levels, helping to reduce fatigue. Spatone contains Spatone spa water sourced from the Welsh mountains of Snowdonia National Park - which can help top up your iron levels whilst causing fewer of the unpleasant side effectsi often experienced with conventional iron supplements. Generally, iron is a very difficult mineral for the body to absorb. However, the iron naturally present in Spatone has been shown to be easily absorbed, with up to 40% bioavailability i, compared to 5- 20% from food and other iron supplements. There is also Spatone® Apple which is simply Spatone spa water, with a delicious apple taste and added Vitamin C, to aid the iron absorption.
Available from Boots, £9.95 for 28 sachets (4 weeks supply). For more info, visit spatone.com.
