Let’s talk about anemia! It’s been quite a while since I tried to educate you on anything important. I think this is important.
What do you think about when you think of anemia? Low iron is what most people would say. Yes! That is a form of anemia. Did you know there are other forms of anemia? Let’s go over the common forms of anemia. I used anemia way too many times in this paragraph.
According to the National Institutes of Health, there are four types of anemia. Iron-deficiency anemia, pernicious anemia, aplastic anemia and hemolytic anemia. Iron-deficiency is what everyone thinks about when they hear the word “anemia.” Most of the time, this type of anemia can be treated by eating more food with iron and/or supplementation. It is common in pregnant women as they are “eating for two” and also can be a side effect of diseases such as celiac disease or Crohn’s disease. Celiac being the actual disease, not the gluten-free trend.
Let’s take a step back for a moment and talk about what is involved in anemia. Red blood cells. That’s it. You either don’t have enough of them or they’re acting funny. So, iron-deficiency anemia is when you don’t have enough iron in your red blood cells, basically.
Pernicious anemia sounds scary. Pernicious: having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual of subtle way. This particular anemia is related to B12 and folate specifically. These assist in making happy little red blood cells in your body. I’m on the verge of having this one as my B12 is starting to tank a bit. I also have another genetic mutation that inhibits my ability to properly use B12, so… there’s that. I’m supplementing with B12 to help on this one, so hopefully it’ll stay where it is and not get any worse. Only a few weeks left of treatment and taking a drug that has been slowly whittling my red blood cell count down.
Aplastic anemia. It’s not a plastic anemia. Aplastic anemia can be lower numbers of red blood cells *and* lower numbers of other blood cells. This one can be acquired or inherited and is related to how well your bone marrow can make cells. If it’s damaged, it’s not making them fast enough. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause this condition, so I imagine it is fairly common in cancer patients. It can also be caused by autoimmune diseases and arsenic and other chemicals. Only my red blood cells are low so far, so it seems my treatment is acting on a different mechanism than ‘traditional’ treatments.
And hemolytic anemia. Did you know blood cells have life spans? A red blood cell apparently usually lives around 120 days. If they’re destroyed early and your body can’t produce enough replacements, that’s hemolytic anemia. Also, if your body decides it’s going on a killing spree of red blood cells when there is nothing wrong with them and they’re just minding their own business, that’s acquired hemolytic anemia.
These are just the main kinds of anemia. There is also sickle cell anemia, which is inherited, and makes your red blood cells inflexible and unable to go through small blood vessels. They’re shaped like little sickles, hence the name. Sort of like a crescent moon shape according to the Mayo Clinic. This starves those vessels of oxygen that is carried by the red blood cells. Reading a little bit about this one, it’s no bueno.
There are more! I’ll just mention others I found: sideroblastic anemia - acquired or hereditary, myelodysplastic syndromes - a type of cancer, congenital dyserythropoietic anemia (CDA) - hereditary, Diamond-Blackfan anemia - probably caused by genes - that’s helpful, megaloblastic anemia - abnormally structured blood cells, and Fanconi anemia - too few blood cells, hereditary.
Except now I’m looking at it, maybe I have megaloblastic anemia. Or maybe I have all the anemias. Megaloblastic is cells that are too large or too young. Mine are fewer and larger lately according to my blood tests. I’m not showing any of the symptoms except shortness of breath though, so it’s fine. And that’s only when I’m walking the hills around here with the dogs. Or when I help too much around the house. It’s an excuse to not do chores. Ha!
So, please, the next time someone starts talking to you about anemia, because I know this happens to you all very often, don’t just assume they need to eat more red meat. There are many symptoms and causes and treatments. Taking an iron pill isn’t always going to solve the problem.