Iron-Deficiency Anemia, Best Ways For Prevention! -

Iron-Deficiency Anemia, Best Ways to Prevent Iron Deficiency Anemia!?

Understanding Iron-Deficiency Anemia Anemia Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, And Prevention:

Anemia is the most common blood disorder, and according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, it affects more than 3 million Americans.

The Role of Red Blood Cells in Anemia:

Red blood cells carry hemoglobin, an iron-rich protein that attaches to oxygen in the lungs and carries it to tissues throughout the body. Anemia occurs when you do not have enough red blood cells or when your red blood cells do not function properly.

It is diagnosed when a blood test shows a hemoglobin value of less than 13.5 gm/dl in a man or less than 12.0 gm/dl in a woman. Normal values for children vary with age.

Iron-deficiency anemia is:

a common type of anemia that occurs if you do not have enough iron in your body. People with mild or moderate iron-deficiency anemia may not have any signs or symptoms. More severe iron-deficiency anemia may cause fatigue or tiredness, shortness of breath, or chest pain.

If your doctor diagnoses you with iron-deficiency anemia, your treatment will depend on the cause and severity of the condition.

Your doctor may recommend healthy eating changes, iron supplements, intravenous iron therapy for mild to moderate iron-deficiency anemia, or red blood cell transfusion for severe iron-deficiency anemia.

You may need to address the cause of your iron deficiency,

such as any underlying bleeding. If undiagnosed or untreated, iron-deficiency anemia can cause serious complications, including heart failure and development delays in children.

Signs And Symptoms:

Iron-deficiency anemia can range from mild to severe. People with mild or moderate iron-deficiency anemia may not have any signs or symptoms. Symptoms generally worsen as anemia becomes more severe. If left untreated, iron deficiency can cause complications and may be life-threatening.

Common signs And Symptoms of iron-deficiency anemia include:

Brittle nails or spooning of the nails.
Cracks at the sides of the mouth.
Pale skin.
Swelling or soreness of the tongue.
Chest pain.
Coldness in the hands and feet.
Difficulty concentrating.
Dizziness.
Fatigue, or feeling tired, is the most common symptom. This can make it hard to find the energy to do normal activities.
Headache.
Irregular heartbeat. This is a sign of more serious iron-deficiency anemia.
Pica, which are unusual cravings for non-food items, such as ice, dirt, paint, or starch.
Restless legs syndrome.
Shortness of breath.
Weakness.

Complications:

Undiagnosed or untreated iron-deficiency anemia may cause the following complications:

Depression.
Heart problems. If you do not have enough hemoglobin-carrying red blood cells, your heart has to work harder to move oxygen-rich blood through your body.
- Cells in tissues need a steady supply of oxygen to work well.
- Normally, hemoglobin in red blood cells takes up oxygen in the lungs and carries it to all the tissues of the body.
- When your heart has to work harder, this can lead to several conditions:
  - irregular heartbeats called arrhythmias, a heart murmur, an enlarged heart, or even heart failure.
Increased risk of infections.
Motor or cognitive development delays in children.
Pregnancy complications, such as preterm delivery or giving birth to a baby with low birth weight

In people with chronic conditions, iron-deficiency anemia can make their condition worse or result in treatments not working as well.

Causes Of Iron-Deficiency Anemia:

Your body needs iron to make healthy red blood cells. Iron-deficiency anemia usually develops over time because your body’s intake of iron is too low. Low intake of iron can happen because of blood loss, consuming less than the recommended daily amount of iron, and medical conditions that make it hard for your body to absorb iron from the gastrointestinal tract (GI tract).

A. Blood loss:

When you lose blood, you lose iron. Certain conditions or medicines can cause blood loss and lead to iron-deficiency anemia. Common causes of blood loss that lead to iron-deficiency anemia include:

Bleeding in your GI tract, from an ulcer, colon cancer, or regular use of medicines such as aspirin or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen and naproxen.
Certain rare genetic conditions such as hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, which causes bleeding in the bowels
Frequent blood donation.
Frequent blood tests, especially in infants and small children.
Heavy menstrual periods.
Injury or surgery.
Urinary tract bleeding.

B. Consuming less than recommended daily amounts of iron:

Iron-deficiency anemia can be caused by getting less than the recommended daily amounts of iron. The recommended daily amounts of iron will depend on your age, sex, and whether you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

Recommended Dail Amount of Iron In Milligram (mg)
Age	Male	Female	Pregnancy	Breastfeeding
Birth to 6 Months	0.27 mg	0.27 mg
7 to 12 months	11 mg	11 mg
1 to 3 years	7 mg	7 mg
4 to 8 years	10 mg	10 mg
9 to 13 years	8 mg	8 mg
14 to 18 years	11 mg	15 mg	27 mg	10 mg
19 to 50 years	8 mg	18 mg	27 mg	9 mg
51 or older	8 mg	8 mg

Recommended daily iron intake for children and adults:

The table lists the recommended amounts of iron, in milligrams (mg) at different ages and stages of life. Until the teen years, the recommended amount of iron is the same for boys and girls.

From ages,

birth to 6 months, babies need 0.27 mg of iron.
This number goes up to 11 mg for children ages 7 to 12 months, and down to 7 mg for children ages 1 to 3.
4 to 8, children need 10 mg, and from ages 9 to 13, 8 mg.
14 to 18, boys need 11 mg, while girls need 15 mg.
19 to 50, men need 8 mg, and women need 18 mg.
After age 51, both men and women need 8 mg.
Pregnant women need 27 mg.
Breastfeeding girls under age 18 need 10 mg while breastfeeding women older than 18 need 9 mg.

C. Problems absorbing iron:

Even if you consume the recommended daily amount of iron, your body may not be able to absorb the iron. Certain conditions or medicines can decrease your body’s ability to absorb iron and lead to iron-deficiency anemia.

These conditions include:

Intestinal and digestive conditions, such as celiac disease;
- inflammatory bowel diseases, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease; and Helicobacter pylori infection.
A history of gastrointestinal surgery, such as:
- weight-loss surgery—especially gastric bypass—or gastrectomy.
Certain rare genetic conditions, such as:
- a TMRPSS6 gene mutation that causes a person’s body to make too much of a hormone called hepcidin. Hepcidin blocks the intestine from taking up an iron.

D. Other medical conditions:

Other medical conditions that may lead to iron-deficiency anemia include:

End-stage kidney failure, where there is blood loss during dialysis.
- People who have chronic kidney disease also often take other medicines—such as proton pump inhibitors, anticoagulants, or blood thinners—that may cause iron-deficiency anemia.
- Proton pump inhibitors interfere with iron absorption, and blood thinners increase the likelihood of bleeding in the GI tract.
Inflammation from congestive heart failure or obesity.
- These chronic conditions can lead to inflammation that may cause iron-deficiency anemia.

Risk Factors:

You may have an increased risk for iron-deficiency anemia because of your age, unhealthy environments, family history and genetics, lifestyle habits, or sex.

1. Age:

You may be at increased risk for iron deficiency at certain ages:

Infants between 6 and 12 months, especially if they are fed only breast milk or are fed formula that is not fortified with iron.
- The iron that full-term infants have stored in their bodies is used up in the first 4 to 6 months of life.
- Babies who were born prematurely may be at an even higher risk, as most of a newborn’s iron stores are developed during the third trimester of pregnancy.
Children between ages 1 and 2, especially if they drink a lot of cow’s milk. Cow’s milk is low in iron.
Teens, who have an increased need for iron during growth spurts.
Older adults, especially those over age 65.

2. Unhealthy environments:

Children who have lead in their blood from their environment or water. Lead interferes with the body’s ability to make hemoglobin.

3. Family history and genetics:

Von Willebrand disease is an inherited bleeding disorder that affects the blood’s ability to clot. This makes it harder to stop bleeding and can increase the risk of iron-deficiency anemia from trauma, surgery, or heavy menstrual periods. Individuals with a gene for hemophilia, including symptomatic female carriers who have heavy menstrual periods, may be at risk for iron-deficiency anemia.

4. Lifestyle habits:

Certain lifestyle habits may increase your risk for iron-deficiency anemia, including:

Vegetarian or vegan eating patterns. Not eating enough iron-rich foods, such as meat and fish, may result in you getting less than the recommended daily amount of iron.
Frequent blood donation. Individuals who donate blood often may be at risk for iron-deficiency anemia.
Endurance activities and athletes. Athletes, especially young females, are at risk for iron deficiency.
Endurance athletes lose iron through their gastrointestinal tracts.
- They also lose iron through the breakdown of red blood cells, called hemolysis.
- Hemolysis, in this case, is caused by strong muscle contractions and the impact of feet repeatedly striking the ground, such as with marathon runners.

5. Sex:

Girls and women between the ages of 14 and 50 years need more iron than boys and men of the same age. Women are at higher risk for iron-deficiency anemia under some circumstances, including:

During menstruation, especially if you experience heavy periods.
During pregnancy, after delivery, or when breastfeeding you may be consuming less than the recommended daily amount of iron.
- This is because your need for iron increases during these periods of growth and development, and it may be hard to get the recommended amount from food alone.
- Pregnant women need more iron to support the growth of their unborn babies, so their bodies produce more blood.
- With more red blood cells on hand, their bodies can store iron to prepare for blood loss during delivery.

Prevention– Iron-Deficiency Anemia:

Your doctor may screen you for iron-deficiency anemia if you have certain risk factors, including pregnancy. To prevent iron-deficiency anemia, your doctor may recommend you eat heart-healthy foods or control other conditions that can cause iron-deficiency anemia.

I. Blood tests to screen for iron-deficiency anemia:

To screen for iron-deficiency anemia, your doctor may order a blood test called a complete blood count (CBC) to see if you have lower than normal red blood cell counts, hemoglobin or hematocrit levels, or mean corpuscular volume (MCV) that would suggest anemia.

Healthy and Abnormal Blood In Adult
HEMOGLOBIN, g/dl	Normal	Men Over 13 Women Over 12
Iron Deficiency Anemia		Low
Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV), FL	Normal	80 t0 95
Iron Deficiency Anemia		Less than 80 (Red Blood Cells Are Small)

Different tests help your doctor screen for iron-deficiency anemia.

A complete blood count measures hemoglobin and means corpuscular volume (MCV).
Hemoglobin of less than 13 grams per deciliter (g/dl) for men and less than 12 g/dl for women is diagnostic of anemia.
In iron-deficiency anemia, red blood cells will be small in size with an MCV of less than 80 femtoliters (fL).

II. Prevention strategies:

If you have certain risk factors, such as if you are following a vegetarian eating pattern, your doctor may recommend changes to help you meet the recommended daily amount of iron. If you have other medical conditions that cause iron-deficiency anemia, such as bleeding in the digestive or urinary tract or heavy menstrual bleeding, your doctor will want to control these other conditions to prevent you from developing iron-deficiency anemia.

Foods that,

Are good sources of iron include dried beans, dried fruits, eggs, lean red meat, salmon, iron-fortified bread and cereals, peas, tofu, dried fruits, and dark green leafy vegetables.
Rich in vitamin C, such as oranges, strawberries, and tomatoes, may help increase your absorption of iron.

If you are pregnant, talk to your doctor about the delayed clamping of your newborn’s umbilical cord at the time of delivery. This may help prevent iron-deficiency anemia in your newborn for both full-term and preterm infants.

Treatment:

Treatment for iron-deficiency anemia will depend on its cause and severity. Treatments may include iron supplements, procedures, surgery, and dietary changes. Severe iron-deficiency anemia may require intravenous (IV) iron therapy or a blood transfusion.

A. Iron supplements:

Your doctor may recommend that you take iron supplements, also called iron pills or oral iron, by mouth once or several times a day to increase the iron in your body. This is the most common treatment for iron deficiency. It generally takes three to six months to replenish your iron stores.

Iron supplements are sometimes recommended by your doctor during pregnancy. If your condition is caused by certain rare genetic conditions, such as a TMRPSS6 gene mutation, you may not respond to oral iron supplements.

Iron supplements are,

generally not recommended for people who do not have iron-deficiency anemia. This is because too much iron can damage your organs.

Do not stop taking your prescribed iron supplements without first talking to your doctor.
Talk to your doctor if you are experiencing side effects such as bad metallic taste, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, or upset stomach.
Your doctor may be able to recommend options such as taking your supplements with food, lowering the dose, trying a different type of iron supplement, or receiving intravenous (IV) iron.

B. Procedures:

If iron supplements alone are not able to replenish the levels of iron in your body, your doctor may recommend a procedure, including:

Iron therapy, or intravenous (IV) iron:

- This is sometimes used to deliver iron through a blood vessel to increase iron levels in the blood.
- One benefit of IV iron is that it often takes only one or a few sessions to replenish the amount of iron in your body.
- People with severe iron-deficiency anemia or who have chronic conditions such as kidney disease or celiac disease may be more likely to receive IV iron.
- You may experience vomiting, headache, or other side effects right after the IV iron, but these usually go away within a day or two.

C. Red blood cell transfusions:

These may be used for people with severe iron-deficiency anemia to quickly increase the number of red blood cells and iron in the blood.
Your doctor may recommend this if you have serious complications of iron-deficiency anemia, such as chest pain.

D. Surgery,

Upper endoscopy or colonoscopy, to stop bleeding.

C. Healthy lifestyle changes:

To help you meet your daily recommended iron levels, your doctor may recommend that you:

Adopt healthy lifestyle changes such as heart-healthy eating patterns.
Increase your daily intake of iron-rich foods to help treat your iron-deficiency anemia. See Prevention strategies to learn about foods that are high in iron. It is important to know that increasing your intake of iron may not be enough to replace the iron your body normally stores but has used up.
Increase your intake of vitamin C to help your body absorb iron.
Avoid drinking black tea, which reduces iron absorption.

Other treatments

If you have chronic kidney disease and iron-deficiency anemia, your doctor may recommend erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESA). These medicines stimulate the bone marrow to make more red blood cells. ESAs are usually used with iron therapy or IV iron, or when iron therapy alone is not enough.

Follow these three preventive ways and you’re on the way to better living.

1. Eat foods that are rich in Iron:

The best food sources of iron are wholegrain cereals, pulses and legumes, and fish. The best plant sources are green leafy vegetables such as dry lotus stems, cauliflower greens, and turnip greens; fruits such as black currants, watermelons, raisins, and dried dates.

However,

irons from these foods are hard for the body to absorb. It is recommended that you eat animal products, which contain heme iron. If you mix some lean meat, fish, or poultry with beans or dark leafy greens at a meal, you can improve the absorption of vegetable sources of iron up to three times. Foods rich in vitamin C also increase iron absorption.

2. Cook Using Cast-Iron Cookwares:

Did you know that cooking in cast-iron cookwares can add significant amounts of iron to your food and into your body? Yes, it’s true and this was proven by researchers who tested 20 foods.

Acidic foods that have higher moisture content, such as applesauce and spaghetti sauce, absorb the most iron.
In fact, for 100 grams of each (about 3.5oz.), the applesauce increased in iron content from 0.35mg to 7.3mg, and the spaghetti sauce jumped from 0.6mg to 5.7mg of iron.

Food cooked for longer periods of time absorbed more iron than food that was heated more quickly.

Foods,

Prepared with a newer iron skillet absorbed more iron than those cooked in an older one.
That were cooked and stirred more frequently absorbed a greater amount of iron because they came into contact with the iron more often.
Such as hamburgers, corn tortillas, cornbread, and liver with onions won’t absorb much iron due to the shorter cooking times.

This list was provided so you can have a general idea of the difference in dietary iron content when cooking in a cast-iron pan:

Foods Tested (100g/3.5oz) = Iron content when raw = Iron content after cooking in an iron skillet:

Applesauce, unsweetened = 0.35mg = 7.38mg.
Spaghetti sauce = 0.61 = 5.77.
Chili with meat and beans = 0.96 = 6.27.
Medium white sauce = 0.22 = 3.30.
Scrambled egg = 1.49 = 4.76.
Spaghetti sauce with meat = 0.71 = 3.58.
Beef vegetable stew = 0.66 = 3.4.
Fried egg = 1.92 = 3.48.
Spanish rice = 0.87 = 2.25.
Rice, white = 0.67 = 1.97.
Pan broiled bacon = 0.77 = 1.92.
Poached egg = 1.87 = 2.32.
Fried chicken = 0.88 = 1.89.
Pancakes = 0.63 = 1.31.
Pan fried green beans = 0.64 = 1.18.
Pan broiled hamburger = 1.49 = 2.29.
Fried potatoes = 0.42 = 0.8.
Fried corn tortillas = 0.86 = 1.23.
Pan-fried beef liver with onions = 3.1 = 3.87.
Baked cornbread = 0.67 = 0.86.

3. Avoid Whole Cow’s Milk on the First 12 Months of Life:

Whole cow’s milk contains as much iron per liter as breast milk, but only a very small proportion is actually absorbed into the body. However, the iron in breast milk is very well absorbed by babies. Therefore, breast milk is one of the best sources of iron for babies providing all the iron needed (with all other nutrients and benefits) for the first 6 months of life.

The Bottom line:

breastfeeding is the best way to prevent iron deficiency anemia in babies. If breastfeeding is not an option or is stopped before 9-12 months, then iron-fortified formulas, which contain added iron, should be given to the baby instead of whole cow’s milk.

Things to Remember:

Chronic blood loss, times of increased need such as pregnancy, and vigorous exercise can trigger iron deficiency.
Don’t take iron supplements unless advised by your doctor.
There are two types of iron: heme iron (found in animal foods) and nonheme iron (found in plant foods). Combining foods that are high in heme iron with nonheme iron foods boosts the absorption power.
Keep iron supplements away from children – as little as one to three grams can kill a child under six years.

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Disclaimer: “Nothing in this article makes any claim to offer cures or treatment for any disease or illness. If you are sick please consult with your doctor.”

Sources

https://www.cdc.gov/- https://www.thoracic.org/ – www.health.state.mn.us/ – https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/