What Is Anemia?

Anemia in Springfield Ohio is “the condition marked by a deficiency of red blood cells or of hemoglobin in the blood.” Hemoglobin is an iron-rich protein that gives your blood its red color. It helps cells bring oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body. If you have anemia, your body simply doesn’t receive enough oxygen-rich blood, leaving you tired and weak. Red blood cells contain hemoglobin. They are also important for immunity, including fighting infections, as well as clotting blood and preventing too much bleeding.

Anemia is closely related to iron deficiency. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in the U.S. Iron helps produce hemoglobin, and therefore the CDC estimates that almost 10 percent of women are iron-deficient. This is alarming considering the essential roles that iron plays, including facilitating with oxygen distribution. Your body needs iron to perform many functions throughout every single day. But it’s common for many people to live with low iron levels due to factors like blood loss (such as from menstruation), a poor diet or an inability to absorb enough iron from food sources.

Common Anemia Symptoms

Without enough oxygen-carrying red blood cells in your body, it’s impossible to transport adequate amounts of oxygen to your brain, tissues, muscles and cells. Feeling a little “out of it” and tired is pretty common for many adults, due to compounding reasons. These can include stress, lack of sleep, battling a virus and a busy work schedule, among others. Therefore, when it comes to knowing whether or not you should be checked for anemia, it’s important to understand how anemia symptoms usually manifest and what makes them different than simply feeling exhausted due to other life circumstances.

Here are some of the most common anemia symptoms adults tend to experience:

• Fatigue
• Weakness
• Pale skin
• A fast or irregular heartbeat
• Shortness of breath, trouble breathing, low stamina and reduced endurance
• Chest pains
• Dizziness or loss of stability
• Cognitive problems, including brain fog, difficulty concentrating and trouble getting work done
• Cold hands and feet or other signs of body temperature changes
• Headaches

You should also be aware that, initially, anemia can be so mild that it often goes unnoticed for a period of time, sometimes even for years. But anemia symptoms typically worsen as the condition progresses, especially if more than one risk factor is contributing to the problem.

You can find out if you have low red blood cells by taking a hematocrit test, along with a hemoglobin test.

How Your Diet Affects Anemia

Aside from getting enough iron and B vitamins (more on this below), what’s one of the most important things you can do to overcome anemia in Springfield Ohio? Remove processed and junk foods from your diet as much as possible. Consuming lots of empty calories — like processed and junk foods, such refined grains, fast food, synthetic ingredients or excess sugar, for example — can contribute to deficiencies in essential nutrients, fatigue, weight gain, weakness and also inflammatory bowel disease or candida.

Candida is a condition that results in high levels of yeast proliferating and disturbing the normal pH balance and mucous lining of the GI tract. This causes changes how you absorb nutrients. Oftentimes, digestive issues like IBD or candida and anemia are linked, especially in women. If you ever notice a white color on your tongue or in the back of your throat, or if you ever tend to get any sort of yeast issues, these are signs of candida symptoms. Along with digestive issues, chronic fatigue, brain fog is often overlooked as a sign of candida and IBD. IBD or candida overgrowth can cause a lack of focus, poor physical coordination, difficulty in concentrating on tasks and poor memory, just like anemia can.

In order to overcome candida and related digestive issues, it’s usually very helpful to try eliminating almost all processed sugars and grains at least for a period of time. In other words, trying an “elimination diet” might greatly help control symptoms. If you are eating a lot of sugary foods, pastas, breads, cereals or really any type of refined grain product or sweetener, they’re going to feed yeast in your GI tract. This can block iron absorption and worsen anemia, so addressing the quality of your diet is key for recovery. I recommend replacing these problematic, low-nutrient foods with things like fresh veggies, lean protein and healthy fats. This will help restore digestive/gut health and also provide you essential nutrients, including iron.