 Hi, my name is Nuno Ferri and I'm a chemist at the University of Cambridge. I'm an expert in the development of novel minerals and I use them as simple solutions to complex problems, typically nutritional and clinical problems. Today I'm here to tell you a little bit about iron supplements. People often don't realize that they are deficient, but this shouldn't be ignored. The lack of iron or adequate levels of iron can lead to long-term health problems. Your first point of call is actually a varied diet. You can find iron in a range of foods, of course meat, leafy greens, beans, and of course iron fortified foods, but overall key thing is varied diet. Basically there's two types of iron supplements. They're called either ferrous or ferric. Mostly we consume ferrous iron. Ferrous iron is more commonly used and that's because it's bioavailable and it's actually an effective supplement if you're taking it in smaller quantities. However, if you are really anemic you'll have to take larger quantities and then ferrous iron supplements start affecting your gut health. You'll start experiencing a range of side effects, unpleasant side effects. Ferrous iron produce free radicals in your intestines. It will impact on your gut microflora. The bad guys tend to prosper, the good guys not so much and it alters your intestinal balance. All of this leads to a range of side effects. Things like nausea, dizziness, you get bloated and at the extreme you may even start experiencing blood in your feces. Ferric iron in contrast is the good guy. This is the type of iron that you get from your food. It will be present in things like greens, vegetables, pulses and it will be absorbed in the same way. So if you've got iron supplements that are ferric based they will be absorbed in the same way that food is providing you iron. However, ferric based supplements are not very well absorbed so it doesn't work very well. Overall, we're a bit stuck in terms of options. You either have ferrous which works but is not very nice and it's not great for you if you're taking large quantities or you've got ferric which mimics what you get from food but doesn't get absorbed and therefore doesn't really treat you. So our research is mostly about copying nature. Nature has found a solution to this problem a long time ago and that solution is called ferritin and this is an iron storage protein and that is quite well absorbed without all of the issues that are associated to supplements, ferrous supplements. Ferritin is a protein that contains an iron oxide mineral inside so you've got a protein shell and an iron oxide inside. The shell protects the iron oxide mineral up until the point it gets absorbed into cells and at that stage because it's surrounding it it destabilizes the iron oxide and allows it to fall apart and when it falls apart it releases iron in a way that our body can absorb it. So when we decided to copy this we chose not to use protein that's because there's a range of issues with using proteins and people are allergic to certain types of protein so instead we used food acids. An example of that would be tartaric acid that's an acid you'll find in grapes. If you've consumed grapes today you will have consumed tartaric acid and we've used these acids to do the exact same thing as the protein they are able to create this coating around the iron oxide at the same time they still destabilize the iron oxide and in destabilizing that mineral it allows the iron to come out and in a way that you can absorb it. We're quite excited about this, we've had very promising data and hopefully we'll be able to take it to patients as soon as possible. Our hope is that we'll produce something that is as absorbable as ferrous supplements but as safe as ferric iron supplements. Well I hope you've learned a little bit about iron supplements and if you're feeling a bit too tired it may not be a bad idea to check your iron levels. Bye. Hi. I forgot my name. Okay.