Symptoms, Causes and Treatment of Anemia

Symptoms, Causes and Treatment of Anemia

 

Iron-deficiency anemia or hypochromic anemia has three main causes:

 

1. Lack of iron in the diet, frequently occurring in children under 2 or in people on highly restricted diets.
2. Bleeding, which depletes the number of red blood cells in the body. Women, who have heavy menses, are more prone to anemia than men. Men can become anemic and it is usually due to chronic blood loss, such as from a bleeding ulcer.
3. Inability to absorb iron, often occurring because part of the stomach or small intestine have been removed or an individual just simply suffers from malabsorption syndrome.

Other causes of anemia include certain cancers, pregnancy and pica (eating clay, etc.).Depending on the cause anemia, it is generally classified in three ways: excessive bleeding, increased red blood cell destruction or decreased red blood cell production.

With regards to the treatment for anemia, oral iron supplements are available to treat iron-deficiency anemia. Many physicians prescribe ferrous sulfate, however, ferrous sulfate has two distinct disadvantages:

1) It is notorious for GI irritation such as anorexia, nausea, vomiting, constipation and diarrhea.
2) It also interferes with vitamin E absorption. Neither of these disadvantages are associated with organic forms of iron, often referred to as heme iron.

There are two primary reasons that physicians often prescribe ferrous sulfate:

1) it is comparatively an inexpensive source of iron;
2) The ferrous sulfate molecule provides a high elemental potency of iron, resulting in less of the raw material required for production in order to meet the label claim. This results in an additional savings for the manufacturer.

Heme iron exhibits the following advantages over ferrous sulfate:

1) Ferrous gluconate and fumarate are organic, therefore, they do not cause constipation or interfere with vitamin E absorption.
2) heme iron is time released, improving bioavailability and further decreasing GI disturbances.

If you are looking for a treatment for anemia without having to take a supplement, I highly recommend you try the following tea, syrup or tincture:

TEA

1 part yellow dock root

1 part raspberry leaf

1 part nettle leaf

SYRUP

3 parts nettle 2 parts alfalfa leaf

3 parts dandelion leaf 1 part hawthorn berries

3 parts dandelion root 1 part yellow dock root

3 parts raspberry leaf 1 part dulce

2 parts watercress ¼ part horsetail

TINCTURE

3 parts nettle 2 parts spirulina

2 parts yellow dock root 1 part kelp

1 part watercress 1 part lamb’s quarter

Iron-deficiency anemia is an indication of an underlying problem, not a disease in and of itself, so it is necessary to determine and treat the cause. Generally, the cause is fairly simple, and iron reserves can be built up with diet and/or heme iron supplements. Anemia can be a sign of a dangerous underlying condition, such as internal bleeding, and should never be ignored.

Understanding Anemia (Understanding Health & Sickness)
by: M.D. Ed Uthman
publisher: University Press of Mississippi, published: 1998-03-01
ASIN: 1578060397
EAN: 9781578060399
sales rank: 512779
price: $11.04 (new), $0.01 (used)

Each year thousands are told they suffer from anemia, but most have only a vague understanding of the condition. In fact, “anemia” is a generic term that includes myriad specific diseases, each of which has its own story regarding cause, manifestations, and treatments.

Understanding Anemia gently builds upon elementary knowledge of biology to provide the general reader with a fairly sophisticated understanding of the various causes of anemia, of the methods used to make diagnoses, and of the principles of treatment. The book begins with a definition of anemia and a brief history of the scientific study of blood. It explains how the doctor makes the diagnosis and details the main types of anemia. Since the different conditions result from the failure of various organs, the reader will come away with a surprisingly broad understanding of human anatomy and physiology, encompassing the digestive, circulatory, and immune systems, nutrition, biochemistry, and heredity.

Features:

• Specific anemias: iron deficiency, vitamin deficiencies, hemolytic anemias, hereditary anemias, and others

• Helpful appendices: a practical guide to the metric system, a brief review of general cell biology, a table of normal values in commonly ordered lab tests, a description of the bone marrow biopsy procedure, a list of pitfalls a doctor faces during the evaluation of the anemic patient, resources for further study (both in print and on the Internet)

Ed Uthman is director of the medical laboratory at Polly Ryon Memorial Hospital in Richmond, Texas. He is an adjunct assistant professor of pathology at the University of Texas School of Medicine, Houston.

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