Lisa Dobriskey talks to Sportsister about how she discovered anaemia was affecting her performance on the track and looks at ways female runners can combat this common problem.
25 year old Lisa Dobriskey has been dubbed the next Kelly Holmes as she makes her mark on the 1500m distance. She recently won a silver medal at the World Championships in Berlin, is the reigning Commonwealth champion and narrowly missed out on a medal in Beijing.
So it may come as some suprise to learn that despite all of her success, Lisa is one of many female athletes who suffer from severe anaemia.
“It is particularly common with female distance runners,” Lisa told Sportsister, “A lot of athletes struggle especially at this time of year (the winter) ; you’re doing a lot of miles.
“You’re really pushing your body to the limit. You lose red blood cells with all the impact that your body takes, every time your foot strikes you’re using those cells so it is quite a common problem.”
Despite the fact the deficiency is not rare; it still took a while to diagnose the runner with low iron.
“It took a little while to be honest. My training really really dipped and it was just a bit odd as things had been going really well.”
“In 2006 I had a blood test and it showed my iron was quite low.”
But treating the problem was not as easy as expected, as the same symptoms kept returning.
She said, “The problem kept re-occurring, I would supplement my diet and then come off the supplements. Then I would experience the same sort of fatigue levels so I would go and have another blood test done and again it would show that I was deficient in iron again.”
When asked if being anaemic effects her training she replied, “You definitely notice a big difference, you just feel completely drained and really lifeless, if you’re walking around your get a bit breathless and you just don’t feel yourself.”
Government studies show that as many as 91% of women aged between 19 and 64-years-old are consuming less than the recommended daily amount of iron. And that female runners should be particularly mindful of their iron levels.
What are the symptoms?
Many people with anaemia do not have any symptoms for months. Finally when symptoms do start to appear a common one is fatigue.
Others can be feeling lethargic, weak, experiencing dizzy spells and feeling faint.
If untreated and left to become more sever more can develop in the form of shortness of breath, palpitations, headaches, sore mouths and gums, brittle nails, looking pale and also the ability to bruise easily.
So what should I be eating?
The treatment is best suited to the cause where anaemia is concerned.
If it is due to lack of iron the easiest method is to introduce iron-rich foods into your everyday diet.
Foods that are high in iron include:
- Red meat
- Liver
- Green vegetables
- Eggs
- Dried apricots
- Sardines
- Spinach
- Some breakfast cereals
- Wholemeal bread
World record marathon holder Paula Radcliffe told Sportsister that she sometimes eats ostrich when training in the US:
” It’s packed full of protein and is low fat, a bit like buffalo. It’s also high in iron which is good for when you are training. When I am training at altitude it’s really important to keep my iron stores up, and so I try to have red meat two or three times a week and sometimes that would be at ostrich.”
What about supplements?
There other ways though apart from food to increase your iron intake. Iron supplements are available in the form of tablets however these can come with side effects.
Lisa was one of the many people who found taking iron tablets to be more of a hindrance than a solution.
“I found when taking the iron supplements, I struggled quite a lot with the tablets, the sulphate just in my tummy.
“I just wasn’t really absorbing it that way, so it was quite difficult to rectify.”
Lisa now takes a liquidised supplement called Spatone which she finds much better. She said, “I had to start taking Spatone because the tablets just weren’t working.
“There’s a big benefit there because with it being a liquid you absorb it better, it is a lot more gentle on your tummy and I just seem to absorb it a lot better than tablets.”
Apart from Spatone though, Lisa maintains a healthy diet trying to incorporate as many iron rich foods as possible into her diet.
“I eat red meat, spinach and for breakfast when I am in training I’ll eat porridge, very simple.
“I won’t take any supplements at that time because the calcium in the milk would interfere with the absorption of the iron.”
“Lunch would just be something like a tuna salad wrap or just a sandwich and a yoghurt and dinner is I would have like a beef stir fry with noodles or Spaghetti Bolognese.
“Quite simple foods but nothing to strict through the winter so things like lasagne we’ll have and make our won healthy pizzas, those sort of things, quite a nice variety.”
For more advice on what to eat if you are anaemic go to www.healthcastle.com/iron.shtml or to gain more information about the iron supplement Spatone you can visit their website at www.spatone.com/
Erin Healey, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
Photo credit: Mark Sherman
