OVERVIEW

Anemia is a condition which results from a number of factors. In general the body is not receiving the nutrients that it needs to produce new red blood cells. This can be a result of poor eating habits, the inability to absorb nutrients properly, damage to the body from chemicals and/or radiation, chronic constipation leading to a dependency on laxatives, an inadequate production of various hormones in the body, lack of sufficient physical exercises coupled with insufficient exposure to sunlight (needed to produce vitamin D), or various combinations of these factors.

TYPES OF ANEMIA

There are three major types of anemia (anaemia), with the following characteristics:

1.Excessive blood loss.

2.Excessive red blood cell destruction.

3.Deficient red blood cell production. Of these three, this last one is the most common.


NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCIES


The most common nutritional deficiencies which result from, but also produce anemia, are:

1.Iron, which is known as a microcytic deficiency, because the red blood cells become unusually small. In the body there are iron-dependent enzymes involved in the production of energy and the body's metabolism (rate at which it uses glycogen), and these functions are the first to be affected. It is easy then to see how the person suffering from low levels of iron would be chronically tired, and lacking strength.

2.Vitamin B12, a macrocytic type deficiency, because the red blood cells become abnormally large.

3.Folic Acid, also in the macrocytic type category, because along with vitamin B12 deficiency, it creates abnormally large red blood cells.


SYMPTOMS


The major symptoms of anemia are weakness and weight loss.