BENEFITS OF IRON FOR TEENAGE GIRLS.

Iron therapy for iron-deficient infants improves neurodevelopmental performance. This double-blind, randomized trial sought to determine the effect of iron supplementation in adolescent girls, a group often prone to iron deficiency.

After determining baseline hematologic status and physical performance in about 200 middle-class Israeli girls, investigators randomized 59 girls to receive iron supplementation or placebo for two months. The two treatment groups were comparable with regard to baseline iron status, with about 40 to 50 percent of them hypoferremic. Girls who received iron reported significant improvements in mood, lassitude, and ability to concentrate, compared with the control group. Moreover, the majority of girls in the iron gr…