Anemia is one of the more common blood disorders. Anemia an be defined as having less than the normal number of red blood cells or less hemoglobin than normal in the blood. Hemoglobin helps red blood cells carry oxygen from your lungs to all parts of your body. If anemia is left untreated, it could cause stress on body organs. Causes of anemia vary widely, but often include inherited disorders, nutritional deficiencies, infections, or exposure to a drug or toxic substance. Anemia is common with certain forms of kidney disease, especially once a patient is on dialysis, and when cancer patients take chemotherapy. Treatment of anemia depends on the cause and type of anemia. It could include iron pills or vitamin supplements. Symptoms of anemia range from mild skin paleness and fatigue to dizziness and lightheadedness.

Diet for Anemia
The type of diet for anemia depends on the cause of anemia. In case of iron deficiency anemia, the diet should include foods that have a high iron content. These include beef, turkey, seafood, chicken, and liver. IF the anemia is due to vitamin B12 deficiency, the diet above still applies since B12 is mostly found in meats. On the other hand, if the anemia is due to folic acid deficiency, dietary sources of folic acid would include dark green, leafy vegetables, whole grains, beans and peas, nuts and seed, many types of fruits, liver and organ meats.

Anemia Symptom
Symptoms of anemia vary depending on the severity of the condition. Anemia may occur without symptoms and be detected only during a medical examination that includes a blood test. When they occur, symptoms may include weakness and fatigue. These are the most common symptoms of even mild anemia; shortness of breath on exertion; rapid heartbeat, lightheadedness or dizziness, headache, ringing in the ears (tinnitus), irritability and other mood disturbances.

Subscribe to a FREE Supplement Research Update newsletter. Twice a month you will receive an email with a discussion of several studies on various supplements and natural medicine topics, including anemia treatment, and their practical interpretation by Ray Sahelian, M.D.

Types of Anemia
There are several types of anemia each with its own cause:

Iron deficiency anemia
This is the most common type of anemia. Iron deficiency anemia happens when there is a deficiency of iron in the body. Iron is needed to make hemoglobin. Iron deficiency anemia occurs when a person loses blood from problems such as heavy periods, ulcers, colon polyps, or colon cancer. A diet that doesn't have enough iron in it can also cause iron deficiency anemia. Pregnancy can also cause iron deficiency anemia if there's not enough iron for the mother and fetus.
     Helicobacter pylori infection, which affects about one third of adults in the US, is associated with an increased risk of iron deficiency and related anemia. Moreover, this relationship holds true even in the absence of peptic ulcer disease, which can cause iron-deficiency anemia through hemorrhage. H. pylori infection has previously been found to cause stomach inflammation and most ulcers. The bacterium also increases the risk of stomach cancer. The presence of H. pylori infection raises the risk of iron deficiency and iron-deficiency anemia by 1.4- and 2.6-fold, respectively. H. pylori infection was also tied to other types of anemia, but to a much lesser extent. SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, January 15, 2006.

Megaloblastic Anemia
Also known as vitamin deficiency anemia. This most often happens when your body doesn't get enough folic acid or vitamin B-12. These vitamins help your body keep healthy blood and a healthy nervous system. With this type of anemia, your body makes red blood cells that can't deliver oxygen right. Folic acid supplements (pills) can treat this type of anemia. Sometimes, with this disease, your health care provider may not realize you're not getting enough B-12. This usually happens to someone with pernicious anemia, a type of autoimmune disease. B-12 deficiency may also be more common in people with other autoimmune diseases, like Crohn's disease. See Pernicious anemia below.

Pernicious anemia
Pernicious anemia is caused by an inability to absorb vitamin B12 (cobalamin) that is naturally found in certain foods. These foods are all of animal origin and include meat, milk and dairy products, and eggs. Vitamin B12 is not found in plants. Although bacteria in the large intestine produce vitamin B12, it is not absorbed into the blood stream from this site. Most people need at least 3 micrograms of vitamin B12 daily. The average diet provides about 5 to 30 micrograms a day.

Anemia from Chronic diseases
Certain diseases can hurt the body's ability to make red blood cells. For example, people with kidney disease, especially those getting dialysis (takes out wastes from your blood if your kidneys can't), are at higher risk for developing anemia. Their kidneys can't create enough hormones to make blood cells, and iron is lost in dialysis.

Anemia from Inherited blood disease
If you have a blood disease in your family, there is a higher risk that you will also have this disease. One type of inherited blood disease is sickle cell anemia. Instead of having normal red blood cells that move through blood vessels easily, sickle cells are hard and have a curved edge. These cells cannot squeeze through small blood vessels and block the organs from getting blood. Your body destroys sickle red cells quickly, but it can't make new red blood cells fast enough. This causes anemia. Another inherited blood disease is thalassemia. It happens when the body is missing certain genes or when variant (different from normal) genes are passed down from parents that affect how the body makes hemoglobin.

Aplastic anemia
This rare problem happens when your body doesn't make enough red blood cells. Since this affects the white blood cells too, there is a higher risk for infections and bleeding that can't be stopped. This can be caused by many things.

Hemolytic anemia
Hemolytic anemia is caused by premature destruction of red blood cells. There are a number of specific types of hemolytic anemia, which are described individually. Causes of hemolytic anemia include infection, some prescription medications, autoimmune disorders, and inherited disorders.

Anemia and Heart Failure
Many patients with chronic heart failure also have anemia, an association that has been increasingly recognized in recent years. Whether treating anemia will improve outcomes in patients with heart failure has yet to be determined, however. The decision to use an agent to treat anemia in heart failure should be made on a case-by-case basis.
     Anemia is found in about one-third of all cases of congestive heart failure (CHF). The most likely common cause is chronic renal insufficiency, which is present in about half of all CHF cases. However, anemia can occur in CHF without renal insufficiency and is likely to be due to excessive cytokine production. The anemia itself can worsen cardiac function, both because it causes cardiac stress through tachycardia and increased stroke volume, and because it can cause a reduced renal blood flow and fluid retention, adding further stress to the heart. Long-standing anemia of any cause can cause left ventricular hypertrophy, which can lead to cardiac cell death through apoptosis and worsen CHF. Therefore, a vicious circle, cardio-renal anemia syndrome, is set up wherein CHF causes anemia, and the anemia causes more CHF and both damage the kidneys worsening the anemia and the CHF further and increasing mortality. There is now evidence that early correction of the CHF anemia with subcutaneous erythropoietin and intravenous iron improves shortness of breath and fatigue, cardiac function, renal function and exercise capacity, reducing the need for hospitalization and improving quality of life. In the present review we discuss the data on current clinical use of erythropoietin in cardiovascular disease, with the main focus on the treatment of congestive heart failure, and summarize the advances and progress made in the understanding of the hematopoietic and pleiotropic effects of erythropoietin in the cardiovascular system.

Hemolytic anemia
Hemolytic anemia has many causes. Hemolytic anemia is defined as destruction of red cells in the bloodstream by a disease process. The list includes:

* hemolytic disease of the newborn, usually caused by blood group incompatibility between mother and baby (ABO incompatibility, Rh factor incompatibility)
* hemolytic anemia caused by abnormal red cell membranes, chiefly hereditary spherocytosis and hereditary elliptocytosis
* hemolytic anemia caused by abnormal hemoglobin (the oxygen carrying molecule that fills the red cell); for example sickle cell anemia and thallassemia

Microcytic anemia
Microcytic anemia is a result of insufficient hemoglobin synthesis. This type of anemia has many causes. Soem of them are:

* Heme synthesis defect due to Iron deficiency or anemia of chronic disease
* Globin synthesis defect due to alpha-, and beta-thalassemia
* Sideroblastic defect from sideroblastic anemia.

Fanconi anemia
Fanconi anemia is an inherited condition. Those with Fanconi anemia have reduced production of all types of blood cells in the body. People with Fanconi anemia have an unusually high number of breaks along their chromosomes.

Anemia treatment
The treatment of anemia depends of the cause of anemia. It could be as simple as change in diet, iron supplements in case of iron deficiency anemia, or folic acid, or vitamin B12. If anemia is caused by a chronic underlying condition, the cause of that disease needs to be found and corrected.

Anemia drug warning
Doctors need to be more careful when prescribing anemia drugs since can increase the risk of death and other serious problems in patients with cancer and kidney disease. At issue are drugs sold under the brand names Procrit, Epogen and Aranesp. These anemia drugs are genetically engineered versions of a natural protein, erythropoietin, that increases the number of red blood cells. Recent studies that found using too much of the anemia medications increases the risk of death, blood clots, strokes and heart attacks in patients with chronic kidney failure. In other studies, patients with head and neck cancer had more rapid tumor growth if they used higher-than-recommended doses. Even when the anemia drugs were used at FDA-recommended doses, giving them to cancer patients not on chemotherapy increased the risk of death. Moreover, some doctors have begun giving the anemia drugs to patients following orthopedic surgery, also increasing the risk of blood clots. Amgen Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, companies that manufacture and market the drugs, both said they would work to inform doctors about the new warnings, outlined in a so-called "black box." The warnings are the most serious a drug label can bear. The FDA also said it would take a new look at how the anemia medication are marketed, including claims they can improve the quality of life of cancer patients. The Web site for Procrit, for example, says the drug "helps you find the strength you need."

Sickle cell anemia
See sickle cell anemia

Anemia questions
Q. Is methylcobalamin appropriate for someone who has anemia and is vegetarian?
   A. Yes, methylcobalamin is a good form of a vitamin B supplement.

Q.  Have you heard anything about carao fruit also known as cassia grandis fruit extract for anemia and general vigor?
   A. See cassia grandis web page.