Effect of Aerobic Exercise and Diet on Anthropometric and Hematological Measurements in Obese Anemic Women

Low level of serum iron was observed with weight gain and increasing BMI, both iron deficiency and obesity are worldwide epidemics affecting billions with regional variation.

Iron-deficiency anemia has a substantial effect on the lives of premenopausal women in both low-income and developed countries. A low level of iron, leading to anemia, can result from various causes. The causes of iron-deficiency anemia are pregnancy or childhood growth spurts, Heavy menstrual periods. Iron-deficiency anemia is chronic and frequently asymptomatic and thus may often go undiagnosed. Symptoms include tiredness, lethargy, feeling faint and becoming breathless easily, headaches, irregular heartbeats (palpitations), altered taste, sore mouth and ringing in the ears (tinnitus). Anemia in pregnancy increases the risk of complications in both mother and baby such as low birth weight baby, preterm (premature) delivery and postnatal depression. Low iron reserves in the baby may also lead to anemia in the newborn baby.

Several factors may explain why greater adiposity increases risk for anemia. However, even if diets of overweight individuals are not lower in iron, the absorption of the iron may be reduced because increased circulating hepcidin (a 25-amino-acid peptide hormone with a key role in body iron regulation, is produced mainly by the liver but also, possibly, by adipose tissue in obesity may reduce iron absorption, Iron requirements in overweight individuals may be increased due to larger blood volume and higher basal iron losses with higher body weight. women suggest greater adiposity is associated with lower fractional iron absorption in humans.

Exercise training can increase total Hb and red cell mass, which enhances oxygen-carrying capacity. The possible underlying mechanisms are proposed to come mainly from bone marrow, including stimulated erythropoiesis with hyperplasia of the hematopoietic bone marrow, improvement of the hematopoietic microenvironment induced by exercise training, and hormone- and cytokine-accelerated erythropoiesis. The effects of exercise training on counteracting anemia have been explored and evaluated. The results of the research available to date are controversial, and it seems that significant methodological limitations exist. However, exercise training might be a promising, additional, safe and economical method to help improve anemia. There is a need for further investigation into the effects of and guidelines for exercise interventions in this population of patients.

Largely, the prevailing evidence suggests that a healthy mode of weight loss in obese subjects is accompanied by an improvement of inflammatory markers along with re-established dietary iron absorption and serum iron concentrations as an indication for re-establishment of physiological iron homeostasis. Treating anemia is a matter of how much food we eat that aid in hemoglobin synthesis. In general, to treat anemia, focus should be placed on foods that are good sources of iron, copper, zinc, folic acid, Vitamin B-12, protein, fruits, vegetables, meat, honey, legumes and nuts.