If you have anemia, your body does not get enough oxygen-rich blood. The lack of oxygen can make you feel tired or weak. You may also have shortness of breath, dizziness, headaches, or an irregular heartbeat.
Anemia occurs when there aren't enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to your body's organs. As a result, it's common to feel cold and symptoms of tiredness or weakness.
If iron deficiency anaemia is left untreated, it can make you more susceptible to illness and infection, as a lack of iron affects the body's natural defence system (the immune system).
Chest Pains and Palpitations
When there's a low level of oxygen in the blood, the heart works extra hard to compensate. This puts a lot of pressure on the heart, which can cause it to beat faster, irregularly, and experience pain. Untreated anemia can exacerbate underlying cardiovascular issues.
Your body needs iron to make hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is an iron-rich protein that gives the red color to blood. It carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. Anemia has three main causes: blood loss, lack of red blood cell production, and high rates of red blood cell destruction.
Call Your Doctor About Anemia If:
Persistent fatigue, breathlessness, rapid heart rate, pale skin, or any other symptoms of anemia; seek emergency care for any trouble breathing or change in your heart beat.
As the anemia gets worse, symptoms may include: Brittle nails. Blue color to the whites of the eye. Desire to eat ice or other non-food things (pica)
Foods to avoid
milk and some dairy products. foods that contain tannins, such as grapes, corn, and sorghum. foods that contain phytates or phytic acid, such as brown rice and whole-grain wheat products. foods that contain oxalic acid, such as peanuts, parsley, and chocolate.
Severe anemia can cause low oxygen levels in vital organs such as the heart, and can lead to heart failure.
With low iron, your body cannot manufacture enough hemoglobin in red blood cells to allow them to transport oxygen. It causes fatigue and shortness of breath. The connection between low iron, body weight, and hemoglobin is apparent when low energy makes exercising and burning calories difficult, causing weight gain.
Transfusions help people with serious anemia quickly increase the number of red blood cells in their blood. Your doctor may recommend this if you have serious complications of anemia.
You should call 911 or go to the emergency room if you are having severe symptoms or any chest pain, shortness of breath, or loss of consciousness. Left untreated, anemia can cause many health problems, such as: Severe fatigue. Severe anemia can make you so tired that you can't complete everyday tasks.
Severe iron-deficiency anemia may require a blood transfusion, iron injections, or intravenous (IV) iron therapy. Treatment may need to be done in a hospital.
On the basis of RBC transfusion guidelines, severe anemia was defined as a hemoglobin level less than 7 g/dL (22). We defined admission hemoglobin as the lowest hemoglobin level within 72 hours before hospital entry or the most recent hemoglobin level within 30 days before an elective admission.
The most common cause of anemia worldwide is iron deficiency. Iron is needed to form hemoglobin, part of red blood cells that carry oxygen and remove carbon dioxide (a waste product) from the body. Iron is mostly stored in the body in the hemoglobin.
If you're feeling tired or weak, having trouble sleeping and are unable to tolerate even moderate exercise, anemia could be the culprit. Anemia develops when there aren't enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen through your body.
People who do not get enough iron or certain vitamins and people who take certain medicines or treatments are also at a higher risk. Anemia may also be a sign of a more serious condition, such as bleeding in your stomach, inflammation from an infection, kidney disease, cancer, or autoimmune diseases.
Iron-rich drinks include apple juice, apricot nectar, beef broth, beet juice, cocoa using natural cocoa powder, “green” smoothies, orange juice, pea protein smoothies, prune juice, tomato juice, and spinach juice.
Sustained stress is another cause of anaemia. Excessive stress hinders the manufacture of hydrochloric acid in your body, which is very important for the integration of iron and proteins. The deficiency of iron is equal to lack of haemoglobin and thus, anaemia.
Iron-Rich Foods
Heme iron is found in meat, fish and poultry. It is the form of iron that is most readily absorbed by your body. You absorb up to 30 percent of the heme iron that you consume. Eating meat generally boosts your iron levels far more than eating non-heme iron.
“Anemia cannot cause leukemia but could be a sign of bone marrow that's not producing enough red blood cells,” Dr. Wetmore explained. “This requires an investigation (lab tests) into the cause of low numbers of red blood cells.”