Macher, Susanne, Herster, Cornelia, Holter, Magdalena et al. · Nutrients · 2020 · DOI
This study looked at whether giving iron supplements to blood donors with iron deficiency could improve fatigue, sleep problems, and restless legs syndrome. After 8-12 weeks of taking either intravenous or oral iron supplements, patients reported significant improvements in fatigue, sleep quality, and restless legs symptoms, along with fewer headaches and dizziness. Both types of iron supplementation worked similarly well.
Iron deficiency is a treatable contributor to fatigue and sleep disorders, which overlap with ME/CFS symptoms. This study demonstrates that correcting iron deficiency produces measurable improvements in fatigue and sleep quality, suggesting that iron status should be evaluated in ME/CFS patients and could represent an important modifiable factor in symptom management.
This study does not establish that iron deficiency causes ME/CFS itself, nor does it prove that iron supplementation will benefit patients with ME/CFS who have normal iron stores. The participants were blood donors with confirmed iron deficiency, not ME/CFS patients, so results may not directly generalize. Correlation between iron supplementation and symptom improvement does not prove causation.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Macher, Susanne, Herster, Cornelia, Holter, Magdalena, Moritz, Martina, Matzhold, Eva Maria, Stojakovic, Tatjana, et al. (2020). The Effect of Parenteral or Oral Iron Supplementation on Fatigue, Sleep, Quality of Life and Restless Legs Syndrome in Iron-Deficient Blood Donors: A Secondary Analysis of the IronWoMan RCT.. Nutrients. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12051313
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-macher-2020-effect-parenteral,
author = {Macher, Susanne and Herster, Cornelia and Holter, Magdalena and Moritz, Martina and Matzhold, Eva Maria and Stojakovic, Tatjana and Pieber, Thomas R and Schlenke, Peter and Drexler, Camilla and Amrein, Karin},
title = {The Effect of Parenteral or Oral Iron Supplementation on Fatigue, Sleep, Quality of Life and Restless Legs Syndrome in Iron-Deficient Blood Donors: A Secondary Analysis of the IronWoMan RCT.},
journal = {Nutrients},
year = {2020},
doi = {10.3390/nu12051313},
note = {PubMed: 32380660},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/macher-2020-effect-parenteral},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/macher-2020-effect-parenteral
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