Ferritin → Cognitive performance
Fix a ferritin deficit and attention can move. Raise a normal ferritin and you have a supplement ad.
Randomized trial · Moderate
Supported by an experiment or a tightly identified design. Still read the caveats.
Mechanism
Murray-Kolb and Beard (2007) treated iron-deficient young women and saw cognitive tasks normalize. Iron is a cofactor in dopaminergic and myelination pathways. The identified object is leaving deficiency, not climbing the reference range.
Caveats
Do not invert the arrow into 'high ferritin makes leaders'. Excess iron is a different clinical object. The trial population is young women with deficiency, not executives with a wellness panel.
Effect
qualitative. Correction of iron deficiency improved named cognitive tasks in young women.
Nodes
Named confounders
Cite this page
What Causes What. “Ferritin → Cognitive performance.” https://whatcauseswhat.org/edges/e-ferritin-cognition (atlas updated 2026-08-31).
Papers
- Iron treatment normalizes cognitive functioning in young women
L. E. Murray-Kolb, J. L. Beard · 2007 · American Journal of Clinical Nutrition