A helpful overview on anemia
health
Anemia refers to the medical condition in which the body does not produce enough red blood cells to transfer oxygen to the tissues in the body. When you suffer from anemia, you feel weak and exhausted all the time. This disease can be temporary in nature or have a long-term effect on a person’s health, in which case they will require continual treatment.
Causes
- Inflammation
Several kinds of diseases like kidney diseases, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and chronic inflammatory diseases obstruct the process of producing red blood cells. - Iron deficiency anemia
This is the most common kind of anemia. As the name suggests, it is a result of a deficiency of iron in the body. The bone marrow requires iron to produce hemoglobin. When there is a shortage of the nutrient, the body fails to generate a sufficient amount of hemoglobin to produce red blood cells. - Vitamin-deficiency anemia
Apart from iron, the body requires vitamin B-12 and folate to generate red blood cells. When your diet does not have any of these, there is a sharp drop in the red blood cell count. There are also cases of people who consume vitamin B-12 but not absorbing it properly. That gives rise to vitamin-deficiency anemia. - Aplastic anemia
This is a rare kind of anemia that could pose a serious threat to your life. This is, again, a result of the body not producing red blood cells in sufficient quantity. Some of the common causes of aplastic anemia are taking certain medications, being in contact with toxic chemicals, suffering from autoimmune diseases, and infections. - Hemolytic anemia
Hemolytic anemia occurs when red blood cells get destroyed or die faster than they can be replaced by the bone marrow. If a person is suffering from a blood disease, it increases the rate at which red blood cells are being destroyed.
