Below I have posted some excerpts from an article in the New York Times by Jane Brody. I encounter many patients who complain of fatigue. By checking their tongue color, and doing a simple test by using pressure to drain blood out of their palms and seeing how fast the blood returns, it is relatively easy to figure out that they are tending towards anemia.
Nutrition is usually the quickest, safest and most stable way to help build sufficient good quality blood. When you read the excerpt and then connect to the full article, please pay attention to the foods suggested.
Of course, if you are female and have very heavy menstrual bleeding, then I recommend you check with a practitioner such as myself that can help you lessen the amount of menstrual blood and develop a cycle that is less draining.
-Duncan
July 19, 2008
Reporter's File
'Tired Blood' Warning: Ignore It at Your Peril
By JANE E. BRODY
Thanks to advertisements for the once-popular tonic Geritol, most people of a certain age know about "tired blood," a disorder more accurately called anemia, involving a shortage of healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to body tissues and cleanse them of carbon dioxide.
It is not really the blood of people with anemia that is "tired." Rather, it is anemic people themselves who commonly experience chronic fatigue. Other symptoms may include weakness, shortness of breath, impaired athletic performance, rapid heartbeat, irritability, apathy, dizziness, pale skin, headache and numb or cold hands and feet. But in many people the symptoms are too mild to be recognized, and the anemia goes undetected for years.
Anemia is the most common blood disorder in the United States. Statistics indicate that 3.4 million Americans are anemic, but experts say that this is a gross underestimate and that anemia has been viewed for far too long as an "innocent bystander," considered almost normal in certain groups, like menstruating women and the elderly.
But a growing body of research indicates that anemia can seriously compromise the quality of a person's life, make sick people sicker and even speed deaths, said Dr. Allen Nissenson, a nephrologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.
.............
Inadequate nutrition is the most common cause of anemia, Dr. Nissenson said. Production of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein on red blood cells, depends upon the mineral nutrient iron, most prominent in meat and poultry (especially organs like liver and kidneys) and egg yolks.
To a lesser degree, it is found in green leafy vegetables, dried fruits, dried beans and peas and enriched and whole grain cereals and bread. Foods rich in vitamin C help the body to absorb iron.
Also important to the production of healthy red cells are B vitamins, folic acid, B12 and B6. B12 occurs only in animal foods, especially meat, fish, eggs and milk. Dark green leafy vegetables are the best source of folic acid; whole grains are the best source of B6.
These nutrients are often in short supply among women who lose iron in menstrual blood, pregnant women, strict vegetarians, overly zealous dieters and poor people. Increasingly, the problem is found among elderly people on restricted diets.
...........
Doctors have long been aware of the risk of anemia in infants and in
teenage girls and women of childbearing age, but anemia is far more
prevalent in people over 65, studies say. One concluded that the
incidence of anemia among the elderly was four to six times as great as
had been suspected, affecting as many as a quarter of those over 75.
http://health.nytimes.com/ref/health/healthguide/esn-anemia-ess.html?print
http://snipurl.com/3242k
Nutrition is usually the quickest, safest and most stable way to help build sufficient good quality blood. When you read the excerpt and then connect to the full article, please pay attention to the foods suggested.
Of course, if you are female and have very heavy menstrual bleeding, then I recommend you check with a practitioner such as myself that can help you lessen the amount of menstrual blood and develop a cycle that is less draining.
-Duncan
July 19, 2008
Reporter's File
'Tired Blood' Warning: Ignore It at Your Peril
By JANE E. BRODY
Thanks to advertisements for the once-popular tonic Geritol, most people of a certain age know about "tired blood," a disorder more accurately called anemia, involving a shortage of healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to body tissues and cleanse them of carbon dioxide.
It is not really the blood of people with anemia that is "tired." Rather, it is anemic people themselves who commonly experience chronic fatigue. Other symptoms may include weakness, shortness of breath, impaired athletic performance, rapid heartbeat, irritability, apathy, dizziness, pale skin, headache and numb or cold hands and feet. But in many people the symptoms are too mild to be recognized, and the anemia goes undetected for years.
Anemia is the most common blood disorder in the United States. Statistics indicate that 3.4 million Americans are anemic, but experts say that this is a gross underestimate and that anemia has been viewed for far too long as an "innocent bystander," considered almost normal in certain groups, like menstruating women and the elderly.
But a growing body of research indicates that anemia can seriously compromise the quality of a person's life, make sick people sicker and even speed deaths, said Dr. Allen Nissenson, a nephrologist and professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.
.............
Inadequate nutrition is the most common cause of anemia, Dr. Nissenson said. Production of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein on red blood cells, depends upon the mineral nutrient iron, most prominent in meat and poultry (especially organs like liver and kidneys) and egg yolks.
To a lesser degree, it is found in green leafy vegetables, dried fruits, dried beans and peas and enriched and whole grain cereals and bread. Foods rich in vitamin C help the body to absorb iron.
Also important to the production of healthy red cells are B vitamins, folic acid, B12 and B6. B12 occurs only in animal foods, especially meat, fish, eggs and milk. Dark green leafy vegetables are the best source of folic acid; whole grains are the best source of B6.
These nutrients are often in short supply among women who lose iron in menstrual blood, pregnant women, strict vegetarians, overly zealous dieters and poor people. Increasingly, the problem is found among elderly people on restricted diets.
...........
Doctors have long been aware of the risk of anemia in infants and in
teenage girls and women of childbearing age, but anemia is far more
prevalent in people over 65, studies say. One concluded that the
incidence of anemia among the elderly was four to six times as great as
had been suspected, affecting as many as a quarter of those over 75.
http://health.nytimes.com/ref/health/healthguide/esn-anemia-ess.html?print
http://snipurl.com/3242k
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