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Fatigue,low hemoglobin & weight gain
Hello doctor,im 31 years old,married & have two sons aged 6 & 4. Im 168cms tall & weigh 80 kgs now. About 10 years back i went in a strict diet and excercise and reduced my weight from 80 kgs to 62kgs. I also became a bulimic during that time in order to maintain my weight and after my marriage and during both pregnancies started eating properly but ended up gaining all my lost weight and was 75 kgs after my second delivery. But now im again putting on weight & have become 80 kgs. I always feel tired,more like cronic fatigue,where i push myself to do my household chores. My local doctor checked my hemoglobin & put me on iron supplement for a month since it was just 9. Ever since my dieting 10 yrs back,my hemoglobin has always been low(8-10).iron supplements just help during its course & im back to 8-9 again. I also have body pain & cramps everyday. Please advice me what to do sir. Thank you.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hi!
Just treating low iron by supplements will not help. The cause of anemia needs to be investigated and treated. The three main causes of low iron are—poor intake, poor absorption, and high loss. Poor intake can be compensated by diet rich in iron and iron therapy. Poor absorption is seen in conditions like Crohn's, IBS, severe acidity etc, and needs to be ruled out. High loss is seen there is a bleeding in your gastrointestinal tract, either due to esophageal varices, polyps, gastric bypass site, hemorrhoids or an ulcer. You should get your stool examined for occult or hidden blood to detect this blood loss. Also you need to get a pheripheral blood smear done to know the RBC count, structure and whether there is cytopenia (general decrease in cell count). The renal function and liver function needs to be checked, and electrophoresis of hemoglobin done to know whether there is thalasemia trait or sickle cell anemia. You need to see if there is vitamin B12 deficiency. Once the cause is found and corrected, then the lost iron is replaced by iron therapy, either in form of pills, capsules or syrups, or as injectable preparations. You should ideally consult a hematologist for this. Treating anemia will help take care of fatigue and weight gain. Also since you have fatigue, hypothyroidism, diabetes, polycystic ovaries etc should also be ruled out. Hope this helps. Take care!
The medical advice given should not be considered a substitute for medical care provided by a doctor who can examine you. The advice may not be completely correct for you as the doctor cannot examine you and does not know your complete medical history. Hence this reply to your post should only be considered as a guiding line and you must consult your doctor at the earliest for your medical problem.
1 Comments
My 21 year old daughter had a miscarriage a couple weeks ago. Bleeding was terrible. HGB 6.5. Received 2 units of blood. Had D&C. She has had low levels in past but not like this. Since that time she has received a total of 6 units of blood. The highest they have got her up was 9.3. Within 2-3 days of receiving blood her HGB level starts going down. She is not bleeding (at least nothing obvious) She is complaining of total body pain that she states in very severe. She is scheduled for colonoscopy next week. I am scared. I have read many different forums and have found nothing to ease my mind. Please help.
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