Pagophagia

Pagophagia you say! What the heck is that? Well, I recently found out what it is. It's the medical term for "craving ice". No, I'm not a doctor, far from it. I do like to surf the web though.

I've been feeling a little crappy lately. One thing I noticed is I can't get enough ice. I can go thru a bag of ice in 2 nights. I like ice. Any bartender will tell you the key to a good drink is all in the ice. I don't really drink much though....but for some strange reason I have been craving ice. I can't get enough.

Anyway, because I've been feeling crappy and I developed this ice craving I thought I'd try google searching ice craving. I never though I'd actually find out that there is a term for it. Not only is there a term for it but it is caused by an Iron Deficiency. Who would have thought!

Well, you know you can't always believe everything you read on the web. I recently had to have some bloodwork done. I asked my doctor if he would add and iron test to the list. When I went to the lab, my doctor had sent in a request for lab work but didn't fill in the section as to what tests to do. Luckily I was having a repeat of labwork that was done a couple of weeks ago. I told the lab technician this and that the doctor was doing the same test plus an iron test. They did my test and added the iron test.

I went to the doctors today and they hadn't received my test results yet. He was kind enough to call for them. I mentioned the little snafu to him and he said why were we testing your iron? I told him about my websearch and had my Pagophagia printout in hand. Wouldn't you know my iron level was low. He was a little amazed and happy to learn something new. I was just happy to know that was part of the cause of my crappy feeling.....of course being right always feels nice too.

So, I'm sitting here chomping on my ice before I go to the drug store and get some iron tablets tomorrow. I'm still having a hard time believing that my iron test actually came out low. According to the web, ice craving is part of of a condition called Pica. Pica is the craving for substances not fit as food like chewing on paper or clay (yuck). Fortunately for me I don't have that form of pica and the specific term for ice craving has it's own specific term "Pagophagia".

How strange is that?