What Is Anemia?

Hemoglobin in red blood cells keeps us alive by transporting and releasing necessary oxygen all through the body and removing harmful gasses.
When red blood cell structure is poor or malformed, or the blood contains an insufficient number of red blood cells, this deprives all cells of sufficient oxygen and the entire body suffers. Whether the root cause is disease or poor nutrition, health care workers call this condition anemia.

Types

There are hundreds of types of anemia; the most well known are iron deficiency anemia, vitamin B-12 anemia (pernicious anemia), and sickle cell anemia.
Iron deficiency anemia occurs when a person either does not consume enough iron or cannot absorb the mineral properly.
Vitamin B-12 is necessary to create red blood cells. Like iron deficiency, there are two primary causes of vitamin B-12 anemia---lack of adequate vitamin B-12 in the diet, or inability to absorb it from the diet. Many conditions can cause insufficient absorption of vitamin B-12.
Sickle cell anemia causes malformation of red blood cells. Red blood cells are normally round. In this kind of anemia, the cells are sickle-shaped. Because of their shape, these cells cannot adequately travel throughout the body to perform their function.

Identification

Initial symptoms of iron anemia and vitamin B-12 anemia are vague. Sufferers may have headache, weakness, paleness (pallor of skin) and may bruise easily. To diagnose anemia, doctors will have your blood drawn for a complete blood count.
You will know early in life if you have sickle cell anemia. The test for sickle cell is part of the routine blood work for newborns.

Effects

All forms of anemia cause fatigue, headache and other debilitating symptoms. If anemia is not treated, it can cause serious damage to organs.
Vitamin B-12 anemia left for too long untreated can lead to heart problems and nerve damage.
Iron deficiency untreated causes intense fatigue and heart problems.
Persons with sickle cell anemia suffer pain and fatigue. The severity of the symptoms varies person to person. No matter the severity, it is a chronic disease and can have fatal complications.

Prevention/Solution

A good diet can prevent iron deficiency and vitamin B-12 deficiency much of the time (except in cases where vitamin B-12 simply cannot be absorbed through normal means).
If deficiencies occur, they aretreatable. Doctors treat iron deficiency anemia by prescribing dietary changes and, sometimes iron supplements.
Vitamin B-12 injections provide relief for many who have this kind of anemia. Oral supplements are sometimes used, but injections are more readily absorbed.
Because sickle cell is inherited, there is no way to prevent this kind of anemia. In many cases, however, pain medicine, blood transfusions, and bone marrow transfusions help ease the symptoms.

Considerations

Iron supplements are poisonous if you accidentally overdose. Because of this, if you believe you might have iron-deficiency anemia, you should talk to a doctor before taking supplements containing iron.
She can recommend or prescribe the best supplements to take and any changes in diet you should make.
Because of the overdose risk, parents should keep iron supplements away from children.

Resources

• Sickle Cell anemia
• Pernicious anemia
• More about B12 anemia