Hematopoiesis
Heme synthesis, erythropoiesis, oxygen carrying capacity
Your bone marrow makes roughly two million red blood cells every second, and the production line is nutrient-hungry. Iron is built into hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying molecule); B12 and folate (B9) are required to synthesize the DNA that fast-dividing precursor cells need; copper and vitamin A help mobilize and incorporate iron; protein supplies the globin chains. A shortfall shows up as anemia, but the type tells the story — iron deficiency makes small, pale cells (low MCV), while B12/folate deficiency makes large, immature ones (high MCV). Fatigue and breathlessness are the felt symptoms of a stalled assembly line.
How your supplements + diet feed this pathway right now — the cofactors driving it, where the gaps are, and your own lab readouts.
The load-bearing nutrients — if these are deficient, this pathway slows down. Click any to see daily targets, food sources, and supplements that supply it.
Nutrients that contribute to this pathway but aren’t the single load-bearing inputs.
Lab markers that report on how well this pathway is running. When one of these is out of range, this pathway is often where the upstream issue lives.
Save a lab session under My Journey → Biomarkers to see your own values for these.
Pathways that share a load-bearing cofactor with this one.