Anemia, Causes and Treatment

Before I begin I'd like to give a big shout out to @suboohi for creating such an opportunity for steemians to share knowledge about this health topic, it is a challenge that I'd like to take up as a Laboratory technician student to tell us all about what i know about anemia. Without further ado I'll jump straight into business

What do you understand by meaning of Anemia

Anemia is a disease condition whereby the oxygen carrying capacity of blood is reduced due to reduction is Hemoglobin levels. This can result in dizziness, difficulty breathing, pale skin, laziness, weakness and in some cases of untreated can result to death.

Cause

The causes of anemia are so numerous but have been categorized as Iron deficiency, Chronic disease, genetic and Vitamin and folate acid deficiency. We'll be exploring them one by one.

Iron deficiency anemia as the name says is caused by a lack of iron in blood. Iron is the main ingredient in the constitution of hemoglobin so if iron is missing in blood then there won't be enough hemoglobin in red cells which in turn leads to anemia. This iron deficiency is usually seen in pregnant women, people with low iron diets.

These are anemia caused by genetic mutations or inherited traits which results in the individual having less hemoglobin or a deformed hemoglobin which results in a reduced oxygen carrying capacity. The first genetic anemia I know is;
Thalassemia which has to do with a genetic deletion of genes that codes for the alpha or beta hemoglobins..

The second one is the sickle cell anemia which is due to a substitution in genes such as adenine at codon position 6 of the beta globin chain that codes for normal hemoglobin being replaced by thymine.

This is seen in individuals with a very chronic disease that tends to affect their oxygen carrying capacity of blood. In case such as cancer, auto immune depressing diseases, inflammation, and more.

Prevention

There's a list of activities you can do to prevent anemia from happening and I'll list them below.

• Treating the underlying disease.
• Taking iron supplements.
• Avoid being dehydrated.
• Avoid high altitudes that puts the lungs in high demand for oxygen.
• Genetic engineering can be done to correct mutations before it escalates.
• Sensitization is needed so individual can be informed.
• Blood transfusions need to be given to sickle cell individuals to prevent an attack.

Ladies and gentlemen I've come to end of my presentation and as the culture demands I'd like to invite my friends to the contest so I'm inviting @wirngo, @fombae, @rafk and @wintia23