Curios about my friend's status.

[paranoia_03]

Hi. I'm a second year nursing student. I was just wondering about my friend's status because she keeps on asking me about it. She has been diagnosed with anemia for 2 years already. She tried drinking iron tablets and keep on eating iron rich food but still her hemoglobin count is low. Her hematologist kept on telling that its only anemia and only requested for CBC. What should I advise to her? And is it really only anemia?

[paranoia_03]

Thank you so much for the advice. Take care as well :)

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi!

To treat anemia, the cause of anemia has to be first found out. Simply taking iron preparations will not help. Low hemoglobin is seen in low iron, kidney diseases, cancers (leukemias, Hodgkin's lymphoma's, myeloma, and other blood cancers), aplastic anemia and myelodysplastic syndromes (bone marrow disorders), cirrhosis of liver, lead poisoning, and in vitamin deficiency.

Low hemoglobin can also be due to increased destruction of blood or its components as seen in spleen disorders, sickle cell anemia, thalssemia etc. It can also be due to increased blood loss as seen in bleeding in your gastrointestinal tract, either due to esophageal varices, polyps, gastric bypass site, hemorrhoids or an ulcer. In females it can be due to very heavy periods.

You friend should discuss all these possibilities with her doctor and get investigated for them. Once the cause is found and treated, anemia will disappear.
Take care!