The Causes of Anemia

Anaemia or anemia is a condition in which, oxygen of blood is reduced due to low hematocrit or low blood hemoglobin concentrations. Usually, blood has lower than normal number of red blood cells. Anemia appear when there are not enough red cells in the body, this can happened by decreasing the production of red cells and also bleeding causes loss or destruction of blood cells. It is usually classified as either chronic(long term) or acute(sudden). Chronic anemia occurs over a long period of time and acute anemia occurs quickly. Generally, there are three types of anemia classified according to red cell volume. If the blood cells are smaller than normal they are called microcytic, if the blood cells have a normal size they are called normocytic and last if the red cells are bigger than normal, then they are called macrocytic. ?t first, anemia can be very mild that it goes undetected, but symptoms worsen as anemia worsen. Signs like, tiredness, fainting, weakness, shortness of breath, chest pain lead to anemia. There are more than 400 types of anemia identified and the most of them are very rare.

First of all, Iron Deficiency anemia, is an acquired anemia in which, body store of iron drop too low to support normal red blood cells production. Iron deficiency anemia (IDA), affects many people worldwide and it has very harmful effects on those who suffer from this deficiency that causes oxygen-carrying capacity to decrease. Iron, it is very important for our body and is the component of hemoglobin and essential for its proper function. Its plays a big role in many metabolic processes and can produce hemoglobin, a protein that helps red cells to deliver oxygen to entire body. This deficiency has noticeable symptoms like tiredness, depression, hair loss, frequent headaches, brittle nails and can occur when there is blood loss due to menstrual periods and blood loss due to gastrointestinal bleeding. Of course, there are other causes as well as diet, especially for people who are vegans, infections, pregnancy. ?he diagnosis of iron deficiency anemia is done by a test which called Complete Blood cell Count (CBC) and it’s look for red blood cell size and color, hematocrit, hemoglobin and ferritin.

Furthermore, there is another kind of anemia which called Sickle cell disease and is an inherited disorder of the hemoglobin in blood. Sickle cell disease, is an anemia resulting from the production of an abnormal form of hemoglobin causes red blood cells and becomes sickle shaped at low oxygen levels. In 1949, Linus Pauling discovered the adult hemoglobin HbA composed of four polypeptide chains 2-a and 2-ß, for the physiological people in relation to people who suffer from sickle-cell anemia. The difference is located at the 6- amino acid of the ß polypeptide chain when glutamic acid is replaced by valine [glu -> val] due to the point mutation [GAG -> GTG]. The resultant hemoglobin produced by the ßs gene is referred to as HbS. This leads to the change in the configuration of hemoglobin, and also the change in the form of erythrocytes which, in conditions of oxygen deficiency, they take on the characteristic sickle-shaped form. The sickle cells block the normal circulation of blood in the capillary vessels, in result to cause lot of problems in various organs. This disease includes various symptoms such as shortness of breath dizziness, headache, coldness in the hands and feet, chest pain. It also leads to complications such as infections, acute chest syndrome, pulmonary arterial hypertension, multiple organ failure, gallstones, and eye damage. Treatments for people who suffering from sickle cell anemia are, bone marrow transplant which offer the only potential cure for this disease and medications which include antibiotics, pain-relieving medications and hydroxyurea.

Last but not least are the thalassaemias. Thalassemia is an inherited disorder resulting from the production of an abnormal form of hemoglobin and is classified after the gene affected in, a-thalassemia and ß-thalassemia. It’s an inherited disorder meaning that at least one of the parents must be a carrier of the disease. It’s caused by either a genetic mutation or a deletion of certain key gene fragments.

ß (beta)-thalassemia, occurs when the body can’t produce beta globin. There are two types of this thalassemia, thalassemia major and thalassemia intermedia. Thalassemia major is severe and it is developed when beta genes are missing. The signs and symptoms of thalassemia major appear within the first 2 years of life and they shows failure to thrive, develop yellowing of the skin, and some adolescents might have delayed puberty. Many people with thalassemia major have such severe symptoms that they need frequent blood transfusions to replenish their red blood cell supply. Thalassemia intermedia, is milder than the other and it develops cause of alterations in beta globin genes. The signs-symptoms appear in childhood or later in life and people don’t need blood transfusions.

a (alpha)- thalassemia is generally caused by large deletions within the a globin complex and also reduces the production of hemoglobin. There are two a-gene in each homologous chromosome. Patients with a-thalassemia can have mild a thalassemia where one or two a globin genes are affected & severe a thalassemia if three (hemoglobin H disease) or four (hemoglobin Bart hydrops fetalis) of the genes are affected. In its mild form those with a thalassemia have no symptoms and no treatment is required. In addition, the more a -gene are missing the more severe are the symptoms of the disease. The lack of a-genes affects all human hemoglobins because the polypeptide chain a is a component of these hemoglobins. Lastly, affected people by of a-thalassemia have shortage of red cells, which can cause weakness, pale skin and more severe complications.

In conclusion, anemia is a disease that has many kinds such as those that mentioned above and some of them can be treated. But if it appears suddenly at any time brings people’s health to a serious condition. For this reason, if someone have two or more symptoms that mentioned above (at any kind of anemia) , then it is necessary to inform their doctor in order to identify the disease in the initial stages, to make the appropriate precautions to give an effective treatment.