IRON STATUS IN WOMEN AEROBIC DANCE INSTRUCTORS

This investigation evaluated the iron and nutritional status of 12 hig hly trained aerobic dance instructors who did not take iron supplement s (ANS) and 8 who did (AS). A control group (C) consisted of 10 age ma tched controls. The aerobic instructors had exercised for approximatel y 3.8 days/wk, 56 min/session for the past 7 yrs. There were no signif icant differences among groups for energy intake, carbohydrate, protei n, fat, nonheme iron, heme iron, or total iron intake (excluding suppl emental iron). But both exercise groups had lower ferritin values than the control group. There was also a significant difference in mean ce ll volume (MCV), with both exercise groups having greater values than the control group. There were no differences among groups for serum ir on, total iron binding capacity, transferrin saturation, hematocrit, o r hemoglobin. One in three aerobic dance instructors had serum ferriti n values below 12 mug . L-1. Results indicate that women exercise lead ers have iron profiles that are similar to other groups of female athl etes. The increased MCV values suggest runners' macrocytosis or an exe rcise induced macrocytosis.