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Anemia: Symptoms, Causes And Treatment

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Anemia is a blood disorder that is created when your blood lacks enough healthy red blood cells. These cells are the main transporters of oxygen to organs. If red blood cells are also deficient in hemoglobin, then your body is not getting enough iron.

Anemia is usually detected or at least confirmed by a complete blood cell (CBC) count. It is the common blood disorder. There are several kinds of anemia, produced by a variety of underlying causes. Anemia can be classified in a variety of ways, based on the morphology of RBCs. It is found in the person when the number of red blood cells in your blood is low. For this reason, doctors sometimes describe anemia as having a low blood count

Symptoms of anemia:

  • feeling of restless fastly and loss of energy.
  • fatigue -- occur because organs aren't getting enough oxygen
  • Unusually rapid heart beat, particularly with exercise
  • Shortness of breath and headache in exercise also
  • Difficulty in concentrating on something

Types & causes of Anemia
1) Macrocytic anemia:Macrocytic anemia can be further divided into "megaloblastic anemia" or "non-megaloblastic macrocytic anemia". The cause of megaloblastic anemia is primarily a failure of DNA synthesis with preserved RNA synthesis, which result in restricted cell division of the progenitor cells.
2)Microcytic anemia: Microcytic anemia caused due to hemoglobin synthesis failure or insufficiency .Iron deficiency anemia is the common type of anemia so it has many causes. RBCs often appear hypochromic (paler than usual) and microcytic (smaller than usual) when viewed with a microscope
3)Normocytic anemia :Normocytic anaemia causes when the overall Hb levels are decreased, but the red blood cell size (MCV) remains normal. Causes include:

  • Accurate blood loss

  • Anemia of chronic disease

  • Bone marrow failure Aplastic anemia


4)Heinz body anemia: Heinz bodies are an abnormality that forms on the cells in this condition. This form of anemia may be brought on by taking certain medications; it is also triggered in cats by eating onions or acetaminophen (Tylenol). It can be triggered in dogs by ingesting onions or zinc and in horses by ingesting dry Red Maple leaves.
5) Dimorphic anemia : When two causes of anemia act simultaneously, e.g., macrocytic hypochromic due to hookworminfestation leading to deficiency of both iron and vitamin B12or folic acid or following a blood transfusion more than one abnormality of red cell indices may be seen Hemolytic anemia

There are more than 400 types of anemia found in the medical science, which are divided into 3 groups:

  • Anemia caused by blood loss

  • Anemia caused by decreased or faulty red blood cell production

  • Anemia caused by destruction of red blood cells


Treatments of Anemia
To over come the problem of anemia,

1)A proper diet including green vegetables is must
2)Consult with doctor or physician to diagnose the type of anemia and treatment options
3)Take proper nourishments, vitamins and nutritional supplements - Iron, B12 or folic acid
4)infections treatment , inflammations or malignancies
5)Blood transfusions provides red blood cell transfusions for bleeding and/or severe chronic anemias can save the life of a person.
6)Red cell transfusions are the old mainstay, which offers the quickest relief for anemias provided proper consultation should be taken as several risks are associated with transfusion.

A successful treatment of anemia is to identify and treating the above cause: blood loss, a nutritional deficiency, cancer, bone marrow infiltration, chronic illness, inflammation, or decreased response to erythropoietin. Laboratory test results and a physical examination, a physician can determine the cause of you.