Iron Fuels Brain Power

by Erika Camardella
03/20/2007

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.—Iron (serum ferritin) treatment significantly improved cognitive performance in a group of young women; further, significant improvement in hemoglobin was related to increased speed in completing cognitive tasks.
The single blind, placebo-controlled, stratified intervention study (Am J Clin Nutr, 85, 3:778-787, 2007) was conducted in women ages 18 to 35 years with varied iron status. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either an iron supplement or placebo; cognitive ability was assessed using eight cognitive performance tasks (from Detterman’s Cognitive Abilities Test) at baseline (n=149) and after 16 weeks of treatment (n=113).
At baseline, women with sufficient iron intake (n=42) performed better on cognitive tasks (P = 0.011) and completed them faster (P = 0.038) than did the women with iron deficiency anemia (n=34). A significant increase in serum ferritin was associated with a five- to seven-fold improvement in cognitive performance, whereas a significant improvement in hemoglobin was related to improved speed in completing cognitive tasks.
Researchers concluded iron status is a significant factor in cognitive performance in women of reproductive age. Severity of anemia primarily affected processing speed, and severity of iron deficiency affected accuracy of cognitive function over a broad range of tasks.

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