Anemia: symptoms, types and treatment

The causes of anemia are varied despite the fact that their symptoms are usually very similar, the variations are found mainly in the severity of the disease and in the underlying ailment, that is, with that other condition that is causing the existence of anemia . For example, in the case of Crohn’s disease, it can happen that we suffer from ulcers, wounds in our digestive system that make us lose blood, and it is that same blood loss that will cause the iron levels in our stream to plummet and let’s start to suffer from anemia.

Iron shortage can also be the result of a poor diet or due to an inability of your body to absorb the mineral. Don’t worry, iron deficiency anemia , as it is known, is not only the most common but also the easiest to treat. Sometimes the problem is not so much iron but vitamin B12 , which your body needs to generate red blood cells and which for some reason is not absorbing correctly. This type of anemia is known as pernicious .

Another cause that can be detected is the abnormal production of hemoglobin, a condition called Tasalemia, or that this same protein is generated by our body but with an irregular structure, which is called sickle cell anemia , both cases generate a premature death of the red blood cells, much faster than your bone marrow’s ability to replace that loss.

The cause of anemia can also in some cases be an insufficient production of red blood cells by your bone marrow as a result of a defective cell structure, a much less common but more serious origin. It is known as aplastic anemia and many times its origin is hereditary.

Now imagine that these oxygen-carrying cells are like cars that go down the superhighway of your veins. The “cars” that are too old to continue on the road go to our junk organ, the spleen. When this organ is diseased, it destroys more red blood cells than normal, which causes an anemia that goes into the so-called hemolytic anemias , where an alteration in the body causes the red blood cells to die at a rate greater than their production.

If your case of anemia turns out to be mild or even moderate, you may not feel any symptoms and you may discover that you suffer from this condition by a common blood test. However, when anemia is already a little more advanced, it is common to experience:

• Chronic tiredness
• Pallor
• Spontaneous dizziness
• Sensitivity to cold or arrhythmias.

If these signs appear, go to a specialist, because putting the anemia long can cause heart failure or damage to the organs due to the lack of oxygen transported to them.

The treatment of anemia indicated by specialists will always aim to increase your red blood cell count or hemoglobin concentration, while also focusing on the disease causing the anemia. Your doctor may recommend that you make changes in your eating habits to add more iron-containing foods to your diet , or take vitamin supplements that contain the iron needed to produce the necessary hemoglobin. Between your meals you should also have sources of vitamin B12, folic acid and vitamin C.

Also, you may have to resort to medications such as antibiotics, hormones, and immunosuppressants. In more serious cases, there may be a need for a bone marrow transplant or surgery to remove the spleen or close the wound or ulcer that is causing the blood loss.

To determine the best solution, it is essential to go to your GP or a hematologist to find the cause of the anemia and treat it promptly.

This article is merely informative, at FastlyHeal .com we do not have the power to prescribe medical treatments or make any type of diagnosis. We invite you to see a doctor in the case of presenting any type of condition or discomfort.

If you want to read more articles similar to Anemia: symptoms, types and treatment , we recommend that you enter our category of Blood, heart and circulation .