Role of Iron (Fe) in Body

Abstract

Iron is an essential element for most life on Earth, including human beings by participating in a wide variety of metabolic processes, including oxygen transport, DNA synthesis, and electron transport. Iron is needed for a number of highly complex processes that continuously take place on a molecular level and that are indispensable to human life, e.g. the transportation of oxygen around your body. Iron is required for the production of red blood cells (a process known as haematopoiesis), but it's also part of haemoglobin (that is the pigment of the red blood cells) binding to the oxygen and thus facilitating its transport from the lungs via the arteries to all cells throughout the body. About 70% of the body's iron is bound to hemoglobin in red blood cells. The rest is bound to other proteins (transferrin in blood or ferritin in bone marrow) or stored in other body tissues. When red blood cells die, their iron is released and carried by transferrin to the bone marrow and to other organs such as the liver and spleen. In the bone marrow, iron is stored and used as needed to make new red blood cells. Once the oxygen is delivered the iron (as part of haemoglobin) binds the carbon dioxide which is then transported back to the lung from where it gets exhaled. Iron is also involved in the conversion of blood sugar to energy. Metabolic energy is crucial for athletes since it allows muscles to work at their optimum during exercise or when competing.The production of enzymes (which play a vital role in the production of new cells, amino acids, hormones and neurotransmitters) also depends on iron, this aspect becomes crucial during the recovery process from illnesses or following strenuous exercise or competing.