Iron Supplements Hasten Recovery in Blood Donors

NIH | MARCH 29, 2015

Daily iron supplements can help people who donate blood more quickly recover lost iron and hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen throughout the body.

Structure of human hemoglobin. Image credit: Zephyris/Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

It can take months to completely recover the iron and hemoglobin lost from blood donations. Deficiencies can lead to anemia, a condition in which the blood can’t supply enough oxygen to bodily tissues, causing fatigue and other symptoms.

One potential solution is to provide donors with iron supplements. Researchers examined how supplements affect blood levels of iron and hemoglobin. They measured participants’ levels of ferritin—a protein that stores iron and can be used as an indirect measure of iron levels.

Compared to donors who didn’t take iron, those taking iron supplements more quickly returned to 80% of pre-donation hemoglobin levels.

These results suggest that 8 weeks may not be enough time for many donors to sufficiently recover lost iron, particularly without taking iron supplements. Future studies will investigate the optimal dosage and duration of supplementation as well as which donors would benefit from taking iron supplements.

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