Let's discuss Anemia!
Anemia is a medical state where you have low hemoglobin. What is hemoglobin? Hemoglobin is a protein that is found on your red blood cells. The job of hemoglobin is to carry oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body: to your brain, to your heart, to all your legs, your toes, everything.
When you have low hemoglobin, that means you don't have the capacity to carry oxygen as well. And that means you start to feel tired, you start to feel light headed sometimes very, very fatigued, maybe even dizzy. Your heart may start to be at fast in order to make up for the lack of oxygen. These are the common symptoms of anemia.
Why do we get anemic?
There are many reasons why someone may be anemic. There are genetic reasons where the blood composition can lead to anemia. In my world, the most common reason is blood loss. You could be bleeding heavily from fibroids or maybe some polyps or maybe some other hormonal issues. So these could all be causing heavy bleeding.
As you're losing blood, you're losing hemoglobin, you're losing iron, and you're losing the capacity to replenish your body with lots of oxygen. So patients who are anemic start to feel very tired, fatigued and lightheaded. And if this is happening on a regular basis, you may actually be used to it.
The normal hemoglobin level is about 12 to 13. So if you get a blood test and you notice that your number is below that, you definitely want to talk to your doctor and find out why. I think the lowest I've seen is about five, which was pretty scary to me. However the patient didn’t have too many symptoms. Since she bleeds so often, Since she bleeds so often, she lives at a level of five to six, and was doing pretty well. But this is very scary because you don't keep any blood in reserve, so suddenly you have a heavy bleed, and then you get down to four or three. Well, that can definitely be life threatening.
So What do you do if you are anemic?
If You are losing blood every month from your periods and from heavy bleeding, you definitely want to replenish the iron in your body so you can start to get back to carrying around good oxygen. So this can be done by oral supplements of iron. When you do that, sometimes it can constipate you. So make sure you take some colace or some stool softeners and also vitamin C in order to help absorb that iron. You can also get IV iron, which is literally where they put an IV in your arm, and drip iron through a bag, and it goes into your veins. And so it's a quick boost and a quick way to replenish the iron instead of slowly waiting for oral iron to do its job, which may take several weeks. And, of course, if it's very dire and very urgent, you may actually need a blood transfusion for life threatening purposes.
If you need help with managing anemia and deciding whether to get IV iron or a blood transfusion, you may be asked to see a specialist. That specialist is called a hematologist. A hematologist is a type of doctor that specializes in blood disorders, and so they may see you, draw some blood levels and help you decide what to do next.
And if it's not very obvious as to why you're anemic, they may do some additional tests to see what's going on.
Now, if you're in California, you have fibroids, and you want to talk to an expert about what to do about it,
come and see me for a consultation!
Call my office 925-744-7473 to set up an appointment.
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