The history of iron from folk to contemporary medicine

What is it about?

Iron is a transition metal that had accompanied the evolution of the Homo genus throughout its entire evolutionary course. It was first a protagonist in ancient mythology in the form of Mars and “Her Desher”, then in folk medicine in the form of anti-weakness medication, and today it is associated with innumerable health and disease conditions. Iron knowledge has progressively increased and its importance for human health has now very different connotations than in the past.

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Photo by Giammarco Boscaro on Unsplash

Photo by Giammarco Boscaro on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Today, anemia conditions affect approximately a third of the world’s population, with great repercussions from before human fertilization, through childhood, and aging. Natural heavy and acid rains progressively contribute to washing away precious minerals from the soil whose acid-buffering capacity is increasingly disturbed. Both single and multimodal nutritional interventions have been investigated in community-based or clinical settings to protect fragile individuals from various vitamin or mineral deficits, but iron insufficiency still seems to persist as quite a perplexing and underdiagnosed issue even in developed countries. Even after the diagnosis, either the lack of treatment tailoring or the poor compliance of the patient prevents this condition to be cured. Wellness features like obesity, regular blood donations, or even ethical choices, which lead to consuming strict plant-based diets or contrariwise the most desirable white (low-iron) meat obtained from milk-fed anemic veal calves, are just some of the causes attributable to iron deficiency syndromes. The older the body the more it is exposed to malabsorption syndromes, intestinal bleeding, urinary iron loss, cancer, and polypharmacotherapies.

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