Are you iron deficient?

How are you feeling today? Tired? Is it your active lifestyle wearing you down? Or is it a sign of something more serious? Complaints about fatigue seem ubiquitous. Perhaps it’s a product of a culture with little downtime. Yet from a medical perspective, fatigue can’t be dismissed with a simple instruction to “get more sleep”. When approached in the pharmacy, I take the perspective that anyone actively seeking advice on treatment probably needs a medical assessment. That’s not something I can offer, but I try to impress upon patients the importance of finding the cause, rather than reaching for any quick fix that may be for sale. (Energy drink, anyone?) And I can use the opportunity to discuss the appropriate role of supplements for treating fatigue.