Date of Award:

12-2025

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences

Committee Chair(s)

Stephan Van Vliet

Committee

Stephan Van Vliet

Committee

Korry Hintze

Committee

Katie Kraus

Abstract

Iron deficiency has remained a global issue even in developed countries despite food fortification and increased nutritional literacy, biological women of child baring age are at particular risk due to menstruation and reduced dietary intake of iron containing foods compared to men. This issue is of particular concern in athletics due to the critical role of iron in oxygen transport and energy metabolism. With nearly half of female athletes presenting low iron status iron supplementation is often necessary. With iron supplementation often resulting in gastrointestinal symptoms that could negatively impact sport performance itself there is a need to explore other options of iron supplementation. Bovine lactoferrin an iron transport protein found in milk, has gained recent attention due to its potential to both increase iron absorption as well as reduce inflammation resulting from iron supplementation when co-supplemented with iron.

The aim of this thesis was to explore these effects in female athletes as well as determine if any potential effects may be enhanced or diminished by delivery of the supplements within different protein mediums (whey and rice proteins). It did so by way of a 16-week randomized clinical trial. This study analyzed the effects of twice daily supplementation of lactoferrin, ferrous sulfate, and vitamin B12 in whey protein concentrate, rice protein concentrate, or in no protein, on markers or iron status and markers of inflammation. This work suggests modest effects of the supplementation on red blood cell count in all groups and saw no changes in markers of inflammation. While the effects on red blood cell count were significant (p=0.034) these changes were small, and no other markers of iron status including the primary end point of the study serum ferritin showed change, based on these findings it was concluded that 400mg of lactoferrin, 12mg ferrous sulfate, was not sufficient to change serum ferritin, hemoglobin, or hematocrit, over 16 weeks of supplementation regardless of delivery method. More research is needed to further explore effects that may present different dosing strategies.

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