Your body’s been screaming for help and you’ve been blaming it on “stress” and “getting older” (it’s not that, and also your hair is falling out for a reason)
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I was at Target buying shampoo at 3 PM on a random Tuesday when the room just… tilted. Like, physically tilted. I had to grab the shopping cart and I remember thinking, okay this is it, I’m actually dying right now in the hair care aisle, this is how it ends. I sat down on one of those little red step stools they have and just… waited. For what, I don’t know. For my body to stop betraying me? For someone to walk by and be like “yeah that happens to me too”?
Nobody came. I just sat there gripping a bottle of dry shampoo like it was the last thing tethering me to reality.
Anyway, I’m not dying. Turns out I was just deficient in something called ferritin, which is literally the least sexy thing your body needs and also the thing that will ruin your entire life if you don’t have enough of it.
This is the part where I explain what ferritin is but like, actually
Okay so your body needs iron. You know that, right? Iron makes your blood work. Iron is important. Cool. But here’s the thing nobody tells you: your body can’t just use iron whenever. It has to store it first. And the thing that stores it? Ferritin. It’s like a filing cabinet. Or a storage unit. Or honestly, it’s more like your body’s backup plan for “oh crap, I might need energy later.”
When you eat iron (hello, steak, spinach, those sad red meat options your mom was always pushing), your body’s like “cool, thanks, I’ll keep some of this for later” and ferritin is the thing that goes “I got it, I got it, filing this away.” So far so good, right?
But if your ferritin is LOW, and I mean actually empty, like opening your storage unit and it’s just dust and old memories, your body starts freaking out. Your blood cells can’t do their job. Your oxygen isn’t getting where it needs to go. And suddenly you can’t climb stairs without your heart trying to escape your ribcage.
I couldn’t climb stairs. Like, legitimately. I’d get to step two and have to stop and catch my breath like I’d just sprinted a mile. And I was like… isn’t that normal? Don’t we all feel like this? I thought everyone in America was just slowly dying at the same pace and we all agreed not to talk about it.
Turns out, no. That’s not normal. That’s low ferritin. And I was walking around thinking I was just becoming “one of those people” when really my body was just screaming.
How I ended up discovering this in the most embarrassing way possible
My sister is a nurse and she’s the worst kind of helpful person—like the kind who actually knows things and won’t let you suffer in ignorance. I called her one day (complaining, as is tradition) and I was like “I think my body’s broken, I can’t do anything, I’m exhausted all the time, my hair is falling out, what is happening to me” and she literally just said: “Did you get your ferritin checked?”
And I was like… my WHAT?
So I went to the doctor (a whole thing, very annoying) and they ran blood work and came back like “yeah your ferritin is in the basement, friend.” Like not just low. Not like “slightly under range.” I’m talking floor-of-the-basement territory. My filing cabinet didn’t just have less paper, it had nothing. It had dust. It had regret.
And THAT’S when everything clicked. The exhaustion wasn’t because I was lazy. The brain fog wasn’t because I was getting older. The hair falling out in the shower (which, by the way, is terrifying, I felt like I was actively shedding) wasn’t just “oh this happens to everyone.” It was all connected to this one thing: ferritin.
Why your body literally can’t function without this
Here’s the annoying part about how bodies work: everything is connected. Like, obviously, right? But I mean actually connected in ways that make you want to scream.
Low ferritin = low iron storage = your body can’t make enough hemoglobin = your blood can’t carry oxygen properly = suddenly you’re trying to run an entire human body on like, 30% power.
Your hair? Hair follicles need oxygen and iron to stay in the growth phase. When your ferritin’s tanked, your body’s like “okay, hair is not a survival priority, we’re shutting that down.” So your hair starts falling out. Just… falling out. In the shower, in your brush, on your pillow. It’s horrifying and nobody warns you about it.
Your hormones? Don’t even get me started. Your cycle gets weird. Like, criminally weird. Mine went from “predictable” to “surprise! bleeding for two weeks!” which is a fun experience I wouldn’t recommend. Your thyroid gets sad. Your energy crashes. Everything that makes you feel like a functional human being? It all depends on ferritin being at a normal level.
And your brain. Oh my god, your brain. Brain fog isn’t even the right word. It’s more like your thoughts are moving through peanut butter. I’d be having a conversation and completely lose my train of thought mid-sentence. Like, I’d open my mouth and nothing would come out. I thought I was losing my mind. Turns out I was just losing oxygen to my actual mind.
The fix is so embarrassingly simple it made me angry
I started taking an iron supplement. Not like some fancy wellness thing. Just the regular Nature Made Iron, the green bottle, seven dollars, the one your grandma takes. I also just started like… eating more steak. And spinach. Real food, not some magical supplement situation.
Two weeks in: the afternoon crash wasn’t as brutal.
A month in: I could climb stairs like a normal person. Like, I’d go up an entire flight without stopping and I’d just stand there like “wait, is this what everyone else feels like all the time?” It was wild.
Six weeks: my hair stopped falling out in alarming amounts. Like, I still lose hair (normal, whatever), but I’m not leaving a trail of it everywhere I go like some kind of shedding werewolf.
Three months: my cycle came back. My brain fog cleared. I had energy. Like actual energy, not just “I’m running on caffeine and spite.”
The worst part? This was so easy. This was SO easy. I spent months thinking there was something fundamentally wrong with me, that maybe I had depression, or chronic fatigue, or I was just getting old, or I was lazy, or, and it was literally just: your filing cabinet is empty, take iron, drink water, eat some meat.
This is the part where I’m supposed to explain why I’m telling you this
The reason I’m spiraling about ferritin right now is because I kept WAITING for someone to tell me what was wrong. I kept going to appointments expecting a doctor to magically figure it out. I kept assuming this was just my life now, like, this is just what being a woman in your thirties is, right? You’re tired, your hair falls out, your hormones betray you monthly, and you just… accept it? That’s the deal?
Except it’s not. That’s genuinely insane. That’s not the deal at all.
But here’s what really gets me: nobody talks about ferritin. Everyone’s obsessed with vitamin D (seriously, TikTok will not shut up about it), everyone’s arguing about B12 (vegans especially, no judgment), everyone’s suddenly sleeping better because of magnesium. But ferritin? The thing that literally determines whether you have energy? The thing that controls your hair, your hormones, your ability to climb stairs without your heart having a breakdown? Nobody mentions it. It’s like the most important thing your body needs and it’s just… forgotten.
It shouldn’t be. This is exactly the kind of unsexy, nobody-talks-about-it, utterly crucial information that changed my actual life. And I realized I wanted to talk about it. Not in a clinical way. Not in a “let me explain how blood works” way. But in a real way: this happened to me, it was ruining my life, it was actually simple to fix, and if you’ve felt even half of what I felt, you need to know about ferritin.
Okay but actually, subscribe to my Substack
I write about this stuff all the time. Not just ferritin, though there’s definitely more coming, but like, the actual information that nobody teaches you. The stuff about your body, your health, your hormones, your life that you’re supposed to just magically know but actually nobody knows because we’re all just guessing.
Every week I break down something that should be obvious but isn’t. Something that changed things for me. Something that might change things for you too if you’re tired of feeling tired, if you’re tired of your body betraying you, if you’re ready to stop waiting for permission to actually take care of yourself.
The thing about your body is it keeps score. Every time you ignore it, it gets louder. Every time you think “this is just my life now,” it finds a new way to prove you wrong. Your ferritin’s been screaming. Your energy’s been screaming. Your hair, your hormones, your entire existence has been screaming.
So like… are you actually going to listen? Or are we doing this another month where you’re tired at 3 PM in Target?
Subscribe. Read the actual research. Stop accepting “this is just being alive” as an answer.
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Be Inspired..!! 
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