Anemia is a medical condition in which you do not have enough iron in your blood. Iron deficiency can be caused by a variety of things but the most common is not consuming enough iron-rich foods. Illness, pregnancy, and loss of blood can also cause anemia.
While anemia is a blood condition that mainly effects our body’s functioning, did you know that iron plays a big role in the health and development of your hair?
Ferritin, a type of stored iron, produces the protein in our hair’s cells. This stored protein is crucial to healthy hair development.
When we’re low in iron, our body pulls ferritin from non-essential tissue like our hair and pushes it to essential tissues like our heart.
This pulling of ferritin causes hairs to shed and in turn, causes a disruption in the hair growth cycle.
Without the proper stores of ferritin in our hair’s cells, our hair lacks the essential protein needed to grow healthy, strong, hair.
If you think you may be anemic, your first task is to contact your doctor and let them know you’d like blood work done to test for anemia.
The test is very simple. Iron levels are analyzed and results are show to be within or outside of the healthy range.
If you discover that you are in fact anemic, don’t worry. Thankfully, you have many options available to you through diet and supplementation to restore proper iron levels in your blood.
Below is a list of iron-rich foods that are great for people with anemia. Remember to always follow your doctor’s advice. Anemia is very treatable and most often involves the use of both supplementation and a healthy diet.

• Red meat
• Dark leafy greens
• Whole grains
• Legumes
• Lentils
• Peaches
• Prunes
• Potato skins
• Nuts

If you are experiencing hair loss and have ruled out anemia as a cause, give us a call for a medical management consultation today. Here at Modena, we are able to conduct tests and biopsies to find the root cause of your hair loss.