Thomas Sydenham (1624–1689), Pierre Blaud (1774–1858)
Most of the body’s nutritional requirements for iron are needed for the synthesis of hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells (RBCs) that carries oxygen to the tissues. Anemia, a decrease in RBC number, size, or hemoglobin content, results in listlessness, fatigue, and skin pallor.
By far, iron deficiency is the most frequent cause of anemia worldwide, with more than one billion persons affected. In developing countries, the usual cause of iron-deficiency anemia is parasitic infection causing intestinal blood loss or destruction of RBCs. By contrast, in developed countries, volume expansion during pregnancy and blood loss during menses in premenopausal women are the principal causes. The body attempts to correct this iron loss by producing more RBCs, a process that further increases the body’s need for iron.
Although the relationship between iron, hemoglobin, and RBCs was not known until the 1890s, ancient Greek physicians used iron to treat weakness, a major symptom of anemia. The rationale was to impart the patient with the strength of smelted iron. In 1681, Thomas Sydenham, often referred to as the English Hippocrates, used pills containing iron or steel filings, followed by wine, to treat chlorosis, a condition variously referred to as virgin’s disease and green sickness because of the greenish tinge of the patient’s skin. During the early decades of the eighteenth century, iron was found in blood, and it became apparent that iron-rich foods could raise the iron content of blood. In 1831, French physician Pierre Blaud introduced the first pills for the treatment of anemia, containing ferrous (iron) sulfate and potassium carbonate. His pharmacist nephew capitalized on this discovery and distributed the product worldwide as the “veritable pills of Doctor Blaud.”
Blaud’s pills, used until the middle of the twentieth century, have been replaced by a variety of other ferrous salts. Ferrous sulfate, the least expensive, is the first choice for the treatment and prevention of iron deficiency anemia in individuals whose daily requirements cannot be met by diet alone.
SEE ALSO Epoetin (1989).
During the seventeenth century, Thomas Sydenham—called by many the greatest English physician—used iron-containing pills to treat chlorosis (iron-deficiency anemia). Iron was extracted from the filings of rusted iron or steel objects.