Cause of Anemia - PaleoHacks.com

Cause of Anemia

2011-12-15T11:56:21Z

I'm trying to determine potential causes for my moderate case of anemia, which has been affecting me for the past several months. I'm consuming large quantities of iron from natural sources, so the problem presumably has to do with absorption. I asked my doctor if there were any clear-cut indicators from the blood test recently done on me, but he didn't have a definitive answer.

After tracking my diet for several weeks on Cron-O-Meter, I have discovered that while my O6/O3 ratio is pretty good (about 3-4:1), I'm taking in substantially more Zinc than Copper, leading to an average ratio of 16:1. Supposedly supranormal amounts of Zinc can lead to anemia through blocked absorption.

Should I strive to lower my zinc intake or up my copper intake? Or both? Or is this not even worth messing around with?

Answer by Anonymous Chump for Cause of Anemia

2011-12-15T12:13:41Z

It's worth trying to figure out.

I became anemic when I was a vegan. Despite every effort to supplement properly, I didn't get sufficient B12 and iron. Mine was an easy fix.

Your anemia is moderate, which is how I would describe mine. Let me tell you, once you get control of this thing you will not believe how much better you feel. So yes, it's worth messing with!

I just hopped on to answer that one question you asked and to offer some encouragement. Good luck and keep us updated!

Answer by Thomy for Cause of Anemia

2011-12-15T13:02:39Z

Are you sure you're not eating anything you're allergic/sensitive to? There was a time when I ate about 3000 kcal a day, because I wanted to gain weight. But the opposite happended: I lost weight and felt weaker and weaker, when I stood up I felt dizzy, had a pale face etc. Then i figured out that I am sensitive to olive oil and coconut oil - my main fat sources at this time. Thus, my body wanted to get rid of the offending ingredients as soon as I had swallowed them - and all the other precious nutrients went with them. So in a nutshell: A sensitivity/allergy to food might be causing you absorption problems. (e.g. some common paleo foods that cause trouble: nuts, eggs, beef if you're allergic to dairy, salicylates etc)

Answer by coprophagous for Cause of Anemia

2011-12-15T16:07:16Z

im surprised your doctor cant or wont help you.especially since he was being paid for his or her "help". Red cells have a life span of about sixty days. if you are running low it means your not making new ones fast enough or you are loosing blood. i hope he or she at least checked for stool blood loss, that would take two minutes. (Ocult Blood stool test).

Answer by Ambimorph for Cause of Anemia

2011-12-16T00:25:43Z

If absorption is the problem, you might consider taking lactoferrin. It is an iron transporter that hides iron from bacteria which might otherwise be stealing it from you. See for example this summary page: Lactoferrin & Anemia.

Lactoferrin sequesters iron so that microorganisms can’t use it, and binds to bacteria and viruses to prevent them from binding to your cells, according to a 2005 research paper published in “Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences.” The iron-binding protein also regulates iron absorption and puts it into storage for later use.

...

A 30-day course of oral lactoferrin increased total iron and hemoglobin levels more so than iron supplements in pregnant women with iron deficiency anemia.

It also is known to prevent biofilm formation, and aid in bone formation.

ETA: That is to say, one possible cause is that bacteria are getting to it before you can. This is a potential solution.

Answer by TomInTexas for Cause of Anemia

2011-12-16T00:56:15Z

Anemia has MULTIPLE causes and treatment varies based on the type of anemia you have. Don't just assume you have one kind or another and treat it based off of internet guesses. A lot of the more common forms of anemia have tell-tale signs that can aid diagnosis:

Iron deficiency anemia usually manifests with ulcers and fissures at the angles of the mouth, and an convex curvature of the nails (a later symptom)

B-12 anemia usually will manifest with bleeding gums, a smooth beefy red tongue, and a poor sense of balance in more chronic cases

Folic acid deficiency anemia is one of the most common, and has similar symptoms to B-12 anemia but blood tests will show low folate levels (you'll obviously need a doctor for this part of the diagnosis)

Frequent infections can indicate yet another form of anemia... My point is, if your doctor can't/won't tell you what kind of anemia you have then do the following:

1) Find a new doctor. The doctor you are using right now is bad at his job.

2) Tell your new doctor your old doctor said you were anemic, but couldn't tell you what kind of anemia you had, or offer any treatment options. Your new doctor will be happy to diagnose what kind of anemia you have and treat that condition.

Depending on what kind of anemia you have, you may be able to treat it with lifestyle/diet changes, you may not. Some types of anemia can really only be treated -dare I say it on this board- with medication that you will have to take for the rest of your life.

Any way you slice it, anemia can be serious. Get a real doctor and get taken care of, then come back and let us know what kind you had (I'm curious), and what doctor you had that wasn't able to treat this so we can all avoid him (public service).

Answer by JeJ for Cause of Anemia

2011-12-16T00:56:22Z

When it comes to solving an anemia problem, it is important to identify what kind of anemia you are suffering from. If you have an iron deficiency ("hypochromic microcytic anemia"), your Hgb will be <140 g/L for men or <120 g/L for women. If you can get a hold of your test results, if your doctor isn't being helpful, just ask to look at them and you can identify this for yourself. This can be caused by: decreased dietary iron, inhibition of absorption (if you are consuming lots of calcium or zinc, in particular), GI bleeding, or heavy menstrual flow (females, obviously). If you are eating lots of meat, poultry, and fish you are probably getting plenty of heme iron, so a greater concern may be checking out if you could be inhibiting the absorption (if you are taking other mineral supplements in particular), or if you are losing too much iron (GI bleeds, hemolysis, menstruation).

In your case, it sounds like zinc is interfering your absorption of iron. If the anemia is causing problems, probably your logical next step is to decrease your zinc intake. See if that helps, and then maybe you can start adjusting your copper intake.

Another kind of anemia is "megaloblastic" or "pernicious", which is from a folate or B12 deficiency. If you had either of these less-likely anemias, your doctor probably would have informed you. This kind of anemia is largely attributed to the loss of ability to absorb B vitamins through the intestine, and would indicate a GI problem that may require significant intervention.

If you are having a hard time getting on top of your anemia and it is causing significant enough fatigue that it is seriously disrupting your life, your stores may be so depleted that it would be worth going on an iron supplement temporarily. I'm not sure where you live, but in Canada we have an iron supplement called "Bob's Iron Formula" that my mother had to go on for a while, she said it's the best and really helped her get on top of her iron deficiency so she could get back to moderating it with a healthy diet.

Edit: Seeing as zinc blocks iron absorption and copper is required to reduce ferrous iron to ferric iron, it seems like your problem probably lies herein. Could be a potentially easy fix, then.

Answer by TomInTexas for Cause of Anemia

2011-12-16T01:07:12Z

One caution against just blindly going on iron supplementation if it isn't needed: Iron can be bad for you. It has side effects just like anything else you put in your body, and if your iron levels get too high it can cause organ failure. (Organ failure is an extreme outcome, and would require chronically high iron levels, but it is a possibility.)

My point is, find out what you're trying to treat before you start treating it. Please.

Answer by ddibwynt for Cause of Anemia

2011-12-16T01:07:25Z

Agreed about the possibility of iron-deficiency anemia being caused by inflammation, from either food allergies/sensitivities, infections/dysbiosis, etc. As far as I understand it, inflammation induces hepcidin to sequester iron which can lead to anemia. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19786207

Answer by daz for Cause of Anemia

2011-12-16T07:47:09Z

did your doctor run enough tests to try & determine what type of anemia you have?
apart from the fbc/fbe (full blood count/exam) panel, some other tests that will help are;
1. Full Iron Studies (iron, transferrin, transferrin saturation, ferritin)
2. Vitamin B12
3. Red Cell Folate.

Also are you over training? if so you may want to look in to something often referred to as 'athletic anemia', 'athlete's anemia' or 'swimmer's anemia' & see 'Edit' below.

another possibility may even be drinking too much water (overhydration) &/or low sodium in the body (hyponatremia). low sodium levels in the body may be the result of inadequate dietary salt intake, excessive water or other health factors. if you are low in sodium you may also be low in potassium and other electrolytes.

& here's a link with info on diet-related anemia http://www.healthcastle.com/iron-anemia-different-types.shtml

Edit: also called 'athlete's hemolysis' & 'sports anemia'. Actually it may not be over training at all; Here's a good article by Dr. Randy Eichner that covers it http://www.gssiweb.com/Article_Detail.aspx?articleid=276
Here's some of the text;

E. Randy Eichner, M.D.
Department of Medicine
University of Oklahoma Health

Sports Anemia
Athletes, especially endurance athletes, tend to have slightly low hemoglobin levels as judged by general population norms. Because a low blood hemoglobin concentration defines anemia, this has been called sports anemia.

But sports anemia is a misnomer because in most such athletes—especially men—the low hemoglobin level is a false anemia. The total volume of red cells in the body is normal, not low. Hemoglobin level is decreased because aerobic exercise expands the baseline plasma volume; this reduces the concentration of red cells, which contain the hemoglobin. In other words, the naturally lower hemoglobin level of an endurance athlete is a dilutional pseudoanemia.

Pseudoanemia is an adaptation to hemoconcentration that occurs during workouts. Vigorous exercise acutely reduces plasma volume by 10-20% in three ways. One, a rise in blood pressure and muscular compression of venules boost the fluid pressure inside the capillaries of the active muscles. Two, generation of lactic acid and other metabolites in muscle increases tissue osmotic pressure. These forces drive plasma fluid, but not red cells, from blood to tissues. Three, some plasma water is lost in sweat.

In response comes the release of renin, aldosterone, and vasopressin to conserve water and salt. Also, albumin is added to the blood (Nagashima et al., 2000). As a result, baseline plasma volume expands. Even a single bout of intense exercise can expand the plasma volume by 10% within 24 h (Gillen et al., 1991).

So it is common for an endurance athlete to have a hemoglobin concentration 1 g/dL or even 1.5 g/dL below "normal". Recognizing this as pseudoanemia depends on knowing the setting (aerobic training at sea level) and excluding other anemias. Plasma volume waxes and wanes quickly in concert with level of exercise, so athletes who train the most have the lowest hemoglobin levels and when daily workouts are stopped, hemoglobin level soon rises.

Pseudoanemia is key to aerobic fitness. The rise in plasma volume—plus the adaptations of "athlete's heart"—increases cardiac stroke volume. This more than compensates for the fall in hemoglobin concentration per unit of blood, so more oxygen is delivered to muscles. Result: A better athlete.