Re: can a human body digest solid iron in its purified form?

Aloha, Mordechai,

     You ask some very interesting questions, but I think I may need 
to 'interpret' them a bit.  I am assuming that 'purified form as found in 
the industry' means iron as a metal.  Your friend definitely is NOT taking 
iron as a pure metal...probably IS taking some sort of iron salt, such as 
ferrous fumarate, ferrous gluconate or ferrous sulfate (as mentioned in a 
handy bood that I keep as a reference...Food/Medication Interactions, by 
Z.M Pronsky who is a Registered Dietitian).  These all contain iron in an 
ionized form (with a +2 charge).  This is the form of iron (as opposed to 
iron with a +3 charge) that is more absorbable to the human body. The same 
concept goes for the other minerals that are nutrients for the human...all 
need to be in some ionic form (as salts or complexes).  None can be used 
as the 'purified' metal (as in hunk of metal).  Also, the iron in iron 
ores is usually some sort of oxide;  these are usually not easily soluble 
in water (on which the human body is based).
 
     Your friend may have also been told by her/his physician to eat foods 
that contain iron that the body can absorb and use (red meats and other 
meat products), eggs (especially the yolk), grain products (in the U.S., 
most grain products...breads, pasta, cereals...are now fortified with iron 
salts), and even some vegetables (beans, some green vegetables).  Some of 
the iron that is found in meat flesh (beef, pork, chicken, fish, etc.) is 
actually more easily absorbed that the iron that is found in vegetable 
products.  That more easily absorbed iron is called heme-iron (think of 
hemoglobin, the red pigment in the red blood cells that carries oxygen to 
the tissues and carbon dioxice from).  There is also non-heme iron that is 
found in meat flesh, other animal products (eggs, milk), and vegetables.  
This iron is not as readily available to the human body, but it does help 
meet your iron requirement.

     You can also get iron from vitamin/mineral supplements...note that I 
didn't say from IRON supplements.  It can be quite dangerous to take 
individual vitamins and/or minerals as supplements...some are quite toxic 
at very low doses.  Anyway, the supplements will contain one of the 
ferrous salts or a preparation made from animal iron sources (such as 
hemoglobin). Just remember not to overdose (more that 100-150% of the RDA 
for most nutrients, just to be safe)...check the label on the V/M 
supplement and ask an R.D. if you have any questions. There are conditions 
that can make taking supplements of iron dangerous for you.

     Your comment about not doing other than what the doctor tells you is 
probably a good first strategy.  However, doctors (M.D.s, for example) may 
not have had a very complete background in nutrition, so it is a good idea 
for each one of us to become more educated about using drugs, even when 
prescribed by a physician, and understand how the drugs work and how they 
might interact with the foods/nutrients that we eat.  I always check the 
Physician's Desk Reference or one of the pharmacology books that I keep in 
my office whenever I am prescribed a drug or choose to use an over-the-
counter drug of some sort (I'm a Ph.D.-level nutritionist, and teach a lot 
of nutrition courses here at the University of Hawaii/Manoa).  I want to 
make sure that the drug is relatively safe, that it has been prescribed or 
chosen correctly, and that I understand the possible side effects to be 
watching for.  There are a lot of good, reputable consumer-level books on 
the market, also, for the general public to become more knowledgable.

     I hope the physician's advice for your friend is working.  Iron-
deficiency anemia can be very difficult and inadequate iron can cause a 
whole batch of symptoms (tiredness, trouble thinking, lack of appetite, 
maybe even weight gain, as strange as it sounds).