Urea: The key to low haemaglobin levels?

On a blood test, urea is rarely given the attention it deserves. Usually even when it's marked as low, nothing is done about. 

Urea is SUPER important for all aspects of health, but I'm just going to focus on it's important to haemaglobin production here. One of the top concerns women have coming into our clinic is anaemia (low haemaglobin). 

For every blood test I review, I always look to see what someone's urea level is. This is because low urea can mean low dietary intake of protein. 

One haemaglobin is made from four protein chains, so to have adequate levels of haemaglobin, we need an adequate intake of dietary protein. So if someone has low urea, this can mean that they aren't eating enough protein, therefore even if they rectify any other road-blocks in making more haemaglobin (like iron deficiency) without enough protein, haemaglobin production wouldn't be ideal. 

It's important to note that we also need other nutrients for proper haemaglobin production, such as:

- iron

- vitamin B12

- vitamin A

- folate

- riboflavin

- copper

When looking at urea levels on a blood test, we want to see urea between 5 to 7!