Thicker than water : a social and evolutionary study of iron deficiency in women

Author / Creator

Miller, Elizabeth M. (Elizabeth Marie), 1981- author

Available as

Online

Physical

Summary

"The world's women are beset by a hidden hunger: iron deficiency. Up to 40% of reproductive-aged women across the globe have iron deficiency anemia, and it contributes to 20% of maternal deaths. De...

"The world's women are beset by a hidden hunger: iron deficiency. Up to 40% of reproductive-aged women across the globe have iron deficiency anemia, and it contributes to 20% of maternal deaths. Despite these dire statistics, women are not routinely screened for iron deficiency. Iron deficiency has been used as a tool to control, categorize, and even ignore women and their suffering. Biomedical remedies - mostly iron supplementation - are unequally and indifferently applied to global populations of women. Thicker than water: A social and evolutionary medicine of iron and women, explores the reasons women are especially vulnerable, using evolutionary theory and social theory in equal measure to understand the causes and consequences of iron deficiency in women. In it, the author discusses how, contrary to popular belief, homeostasis protects the iron stores of women from iron loss during menstruation. Instead, women's iron metabolism has evolved to balance the benefits and danger of iron, protecting vulnerable embryos against excessive iron at the cost of reduced iron stores for themselves. This balancing act is threatened when women's social circumstances prevent them from accessing the dietary iron they need. This book explores how race, poverty, and gender are entangled with women's evolved bodies, deeply affecting and even threatening women's lives. Ultimately, this book shows that women's evolved bodies - optimized to protect themselves and their offspring - are devastated by structural forces beyond their control"--

Show More