Insides as black as night

If you're a boy, stop reading.

Actually, if you're a girl, you may want to stop, too.

Last year, I was introduced to liquid iron supplements by my nutritionist. At some appointment, I expressed concern to her about a drop in my fitness for which I couldn't find a cause. She looked at the insides of my lower eye lid, and commented the color was very pale, implying a lack of iron. She then asked if I had menstruated recently. When I answered yes, she explained the drop in fitness was probably due to low levels of iron, and suggested I purchase a liquid iron supplement that I could get at Whole Foods or an organic nutritional store. I found the product, Floradix, and started taking it.

The improvement was dramatic. Within a week, I was back to my feelings of previous fitness levels; I had more energy. More importantly, I was able to run run run again, without feelings of cobwebs in my legs (a feeling which takes approximately 17 points in ultimate to clear).

So, I continued taking the iron supplement, even after my immediate lack was fixed. When I stopped, I felt my fitness level dropped, so, for a year I didn't stop: except for missing a day or two here and there, I continued taking the iron supplement.

Fast forward to earlier this year, when I mentioned to my nutritionist that I was continuing to take the iron supplement, but couldn't figure out where the iron was going. She immediately became very concerned: except during menstruation, most women do not lack iron, so the continual supplemental use could lead to essentially iron poisoning as the iron (potentially) built up in my body. Great, I thought, something that helps me in a natural way to perform better might just be awful for me. Figures.

I had several blood tests done to check the levels of free iron in my system, as well as general iron absorption. Both were normal, so my nutritionist said, sure, continue the supplements, but maybe let up a little bit: no more than once a day for the supplement (which was the most I was doing anyway), or even skip every other day.

But even with the go-ahead to continue the supplements, there was still the little nagging concern: where had all that iron gone?

I found out today just where all that iron had gone.

I did tell you to stop reading, didn't I?

Yeah, thought so.

The only thing I could think of looking at the mess, was, well, look at that: insides as black as night.