Anaemia is a health issue that affected an estimated 30% of the population around the world. It is associated with fatigue, headaches, palpitations, shortness of breath and even chest pain leading to heart attack. Anaemia can affect seriously during exertion as exercise requires more oxygen delivery to the muscles. If it becomes severe, symptoms may lead to difficulty in breathing, confusion or lethargy. If the anaemia is a result of sudden bleeding, it can even cause a sudden reduction in plasma, leading to low blood pressure with dizziness or even shock and death.

But in the case of mild anaemia, none of these symptoms or conditions is likely to be caused.  A “significant” or “mild” anaemia is somewhat arbitrary. According to health experts, hematocrit levels of 32 to 35 are unlikely to cause symptoms of anaemia. 

When the level of anaemia is moderate or severe, there symptoms not only related to anaemia, like fatigue, but also related to the disease causing the anaemia could be seen. Anaemia is common among those with chronic diseases associated with inflammation, and rheumatoid arthritis or Crohn’s disease associated with diarrhoea and crampy abdominal pain. If the anaemia is serious enough to cause symptoms, the priority should be given to the reduction or elimination of the symptoms.

Anaemia May Not Be Causing Symptoms

Most people with mild anaemia are unaware of it as there will be no symptoms. Fatigue is often considered as a result from anaemia, but yet doctors are taught that unless anaemia is “significant,” it does not cause any symptoms.

When anaemia is discovered, people often assume that it comes out with symptoms like fatigue. In fact, mild anaemia rarely causes fatigue

Once anaemia is found out, the next step must be the search for the cause, including vitamin or nutrient deficiency, blood loss, red cell destruction, and underlying inflammation.  The treatment must be depended on the severity of the anaemia and the underlying cause. There are chances of a doctor or patient making these assumptions to make an overlook of the true cause of the fatigue.

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Anaemia is a common problem faced by around 30% of the world’s population.  It is seen commonly among young women due to the blood loss during the menstrual cycle. Poor nutrition is another factor causing it. Contamination of water with lead or copper also plays the villain showing a rise in the number of anaemic patients.

As anaemia is common, intake of iron is recommended as a remedy.  But anaemia is often blamed for symptoms that are unrelated. Iron deficiency is only one cause of anaemia among many other reasons. 

What Is Anaemia?

The exact meaning of the term word “anaemia” is a reduction in the number of red blood cells. It may seem like a straightforward definition,

But there are at least two ways to determine what a “low” number of red cells are. The first method is less than the number needed to carry on normal bodily function, or, lower than most other healthy people.

A laboratory defines its normal values by measuring hundreds or even thousands of normal, healthy people’s red blood counts and defining the normal range as the values of 95% of that population. The rest remaining 5% is the very highest and lowest values that are often considered abnormal.

Anaemia Is Not a Disease

Anaemia is not actually a disease, as believed commonly. It is a blood-test result. The bone marrow produces more than enough red blood cells to carry oxygen to the vital organs of the body, which last about four months in the circulation and then get broken down and later get removed from the circulation when they get feeble.
Anaemia is associated with fatigue, headaches, palpitations, shortness of breath and even chest pain leading to heart attack. The symptoms of anaemia tend to be worst during exertion as exercise requires more oxygen delivery to the muscles. Anaemia can even develop difficulty breathing, confusion or lethargy, leading to low blood pressure with dizziness or even shock and death.