Thursday, May 26, 2011

Sleep Deprived

As I lay awake at 2 a.m. last night, I read about reasons I have been unable to sleep.
I am convinced I have Restless Leg Syndrome, the symptoms are me to a 'T' I have had all of the symptoms for as long as I can remember, even as a child. One thing I know about it is that antihistamines can make it worse. Antihistamines as in benadryl or the main ingrediant in all of the "PM" medications. I used to take a benadryl to help me sleep but it made the RLS so much worse. I have been wondering why it's been bothering me so much these past few days and I thought it was soreness from running. As I was reading last night, I read one of the most common causes is iron deficiency. I've never been deficient in iron, however, I know that running can cause iron deficiency, something about the repetitive foot strikes doing something to the blood that lowers iron? And, TMI, it's that time of the month, and I've only had that time of the month twice (being pregnant and than nursing for 9 months.) I eat a lot of spinach which I know is high in iron, but very little meat like 3 oz 3-4 times a week in the form of chicken. I don't eat fortified bread, and I know cereal usually has added iron, but I haven't eaten cereal in a long time. I don't actually know if my iron is low, but it makes a lot of sense to me. I need to start taking a daily vitamin.

Have any of you ever dealt with low iron?

When your pregnant they test your iron levels quite often, and I was never too low, though often on the lower side. I was also diligent about taking my prenatals with extra iron, which obviously I don't do now.
My husband told me to eat a steak. I think that's code for he wants steak.

Yesterday's workout was 5 miles at easy pace: 9:40, which is a little too easy, I think I am going to up it a bit and the ab video.

My weekend starts tomorrow! So TGITH!!!

May you all have sweet dreams!

3 comments:

  1. I am low on iron often--I really have to work at it to keep it at a decent level. Lots of spinach for me! I do eat fortified things though--dry cereal as snacks, and an iron multivitamin. Still, it's low after all of that stuff. I keep trying!
    :)

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  2. Yes I constantly have low iron, I have been taking iron pills every day for seems like forever! Maybe you should take iron pills to help out with your low iron. It definitely helps.

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  3. I continued to take my prenatals while I was nursing for the extra nutrients. Nursing can suck a lot out of you. Are you still nursing? I'm not anymore and am no longer good about taking vitamins but I should be, as I am always low on iron also!

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