Background

Elite female athletes have shown vulnerability to various degrees of iron deficiency. Less is known about recreational fitness exercisers. A study was done to examine plasma ferritin, an assessor of iron status, in young adult, university student fitness runners.

Methods

The present study examined serum ferritin concentrations, an indicator of iron status, in 39 female university students (age 18–25) who ran for fitness, but ran less than competition runners. Selected subjects all reported themselves as not anemic.

Results

Mean + SD for 3 mile run time was 26.25 + 3.0 min. The mean ferritin reading was low: 12.4 + 12.3 ng/mL (+ SD). Out of the 39 women, 29 had readings that fell below 15 ng/mL, which some consider the cutoff for iron deficiency. In addition, all but 2 subjects had values below 35, which has been proposed as Stage 1 iron deficiency for athletes. Ferritin levels did not correlate with 3 mile run times (Pearson correlation coefficient, P > 0.05). A 1 mo intervention with 3 minerals that included iron (36 mg/day) significantly raised ferritin values when the iron was bisglycinate (p < 0.05), but not when it was ferrous sulfate (p > 0.05).

Conclusion

In this study, a degree of iron deficiency was seen in most of a group of female fitness runners (each of whom had self reported as not being anemic).

中文翻译：

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年轻成人、女大学生休闲跑步者的铁蛋白读数。

背景

精英女运动员已经表现出对不同程度缺铁的脆弱性。对休闲健身锻炼者知之甚少。一项研究旨在检查年轻成人、大学生健身跑步者的血浆铁蛋白（铁状态的评估指标）。

方法

本研究检测了 39 名女性大学生（18-25 岁）的血清铁蛋白浓度，这是铁状态的一个指标，她们为健身而跑步，但比竞赛跑步者跑得少。选定的受试者都报告自己没有贫血。

结果

3 英里跑步时间的平均值+ SD 为 26.25 + 3.0 分钟。平均铁蛋白读数很低：12.4 + 12.3 ng/mL ( + SD)。在 39 名女性中，有 29 名的读数低于 15 ng/mL，有些人认为这是缺铁的临界值。此外，除了 2 名受试者外，所有受试者的值都低于 35，这已被提议为运动员的第 1 阶段缺铁。铁蛋白水平与 3 英里跑步时间无关（Pearson 相关系数，P > 0.05）。当铁为双甘氨酸 (p < 0.05) 时，使用 3 种矿物质（包括铁（36 毫克/天））进行 1 个月干预后，铁蛋白值显着升高（p < 0.05），但当铁为硫酸亚铁时（p > 0.05）则不然。

结论

在这项研究中，一组女性健身跑步者中的大多数人都出现了一定程度的铁缺乏症（每个人都自称没有贫血）。