essay for anemia and its remedies
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Anemia occurs when the number of red blood cells circulating in the body decreases. It is the most common blood disorder.
Around one-third of the world’s population has a form of anemia, according to a 2015 article in The Lancet.
It often develops as a result of other health issues that interfere with the body’s production of healthy red blood cells (RBCs) or increase the rates of the breakdown or loss of these cells.
In this article, we explain the types, symptoms, and causes of anemia, as well as the treatments available.
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Symptoms
A person with anemia may experience fatigue, an irregular heartbeat, and chest pain.
The most common symptom of anemia is fatigue. Other common symptoms include:
pale skin
a fast or irregular heartbeat
shortness of breath
chest pain
headaches
light-headedness
People with mild anemia may experience few or no symptoms.
Some forms of anemia cause specific telltale symptoms, including:
Aplastic anemia: This can cause a fever, frequent infections, and skin rashes.
Folic acid deficiency anemia: This can cause irritability, diarrhea, and a smooth tongue.
Hemolytic anemia: This can cause jaundice, dark urine, a fever, and abdominal pain.
Sickle cell anemia: This can cause painful swelling in the feet and hands, as well as fatigue and jaundice.
Causes and types
The body needs RBCs to survive. They transport hemoglobin, a complex protein that attaches to iron molecules. These molecules carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.
Various health conditions can result in low levels of RBCs.
There are many types of anemia and no single cause. In some people, it can be difficult to identify what is causing a low low RBC count.
The three main causes of anemia are:
Blood loss
Iron-deficiency anemia is the most common type of anemia, and blood loss is often the cause. A shortage of iron in the blood leads to this form of the condition, and low iron levels frequently occur as a result of blood loss.
When the body loses blood, it draws water from tissues beyond the bloodstream to help keep the blood vessels full. This additional water dilutes the blood, reducing the RBC count.
Blood loss can be acute and rapid or chronic. Some causes of rapid blood loss include surgery, childbirth, and trauma.
Chronic blood loss is more often responsible for anemia. It can result from a stomach ulcer, cancer, or another type of tumor.
Other causes of anemia due to blood loss include:
gastrointestinal conditions, such as ulcers, hemorrhoids, cancer, or gastritis
the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin and ibuprofen
heavy menstrual bleeding
Decreased or impaired RBCs
Bone marrow is soft, spongy tissue at the center of bones, and it plays an essential role in creating RBCs. The marrow produces stem cells, which develop into RBCs, white blood cells, and platelets.
A number of diseases can affect bone marrow, including leukemia. This is a type of cancer that triggers the production of excessive and abnormal white blood cells, disrupting the production of RBCs.
Problems with bone marrow can cause anemia. Aplastic anemia, for example, occurs when few or no stem cells are present in the marrow.
In some cases, anemia results when RBCs do not grow and mature as usual, as with thalassemia — a hereditary form of anemia.
Other types of anemia that occur due to decreased or impaired RBCs include:
Sickle cell anemia
This causes RBCs to be shaped like crescents. They may break down more quickly than healthy RBCs or become lodged in small blood vessels.
This blockage can reduce oxygen levels and cause pain further down in the bloodstream.
Iron-deficiency anemia
This involves the body producing too few RBCs due to a lack of iron in the body.
Iron-deficiency anemia may develop as a result of:
a diet low in iron
menstruation
frequent blood donation
endurance training
certain digestive conditions, such as Crohn’s disease
medications that irritate the gut lining, such as ibuprofen
Vitamin-deficiency anemia
Vitamin B-12 and folate are both essential for the production of RBCs. If a person does not consume enough of either vitamin, their RBC count may be low.
Some examples of vitamin-deficiency anemia include megaloblastic anemia and pernicious anemia.
Destruction of RBCs
These cells typically have a life span of 120 days in the bloodstream, but the body may destroy or remove them before they complete their natural life cycle.
One type of anemia that results from the destruction of RBCs is autoimmune hemolytic anemia. It occurs when the immune system mistakes RBCs for a foreign substance and attacks them.
Many factors can cause an excessive breakdown of RBCs, including:
infections
certain drugs, including some antibiotics
severe hypertension
vascular grafts and prosthetic heart valves
toxins produced by advanced kidney or liver disease
an autoimmune attack, due to hemolytic disease, for example
snake or spider venom