Anaemia

Anyone here anaemic? Whats your symptoms and treatments?

Tiredness, lethargy, confusion.

Iron Tablets – two a day. Not to be taken with Calcium (ie milk/cheese etc).

Unusual in boys. I’d get the cause identified.

Yep – me.
After a year of being ill, had loads of tests and one of the things that came up was anaemia.
Dr. put me on ferrous sulphate tablets – 3 a day at first. These have to be taken an hour and a half after eating with vitamin ‘c’ ( ribena is good). They can make you constipated, so eating healthy foods, salads, fruits, vegatables and drinking alot of fluids will help.
I have had a nutrition plan. Which means eating more, wholemeal foods, loads of fresh fruit ( oranges, blackcurrants and the best ), red meat, offal ( liver, kidneys etc).
Also tips like not drinking tea with/after food, this takes the iron out of your body.

The symptoms were mainly tiredness. Needing lots of sleep, lethargic at work and feeling a bit run down.
Hope this helps.

Go and see the doctor and have ablood test, where they’ll take a red blood cell count.

Small cuts in the corner of the mouth, a craving for strange foods, tiredness, falling asleep in the chair watching tv, not being able to wake up properly in the morning, shortness of breath,headaches iron sulphate tablets make your poo black, and very hard to get out,lack of co-ordination walking into doors etc,simple blood test checks it, but there will be follow up tests, barium enema, very interesting,camera down throat looking for blood loss, possibly a bone marrow biopsy, and a CT scan,then you may get a small infection ,be admitted to hospital the same day, be there for 3 days,have a small operation and be off work for 2 months, have a blood transfusion of 4 units equal to 4 pints of blood. somebody i knew had all the things listed above and in the end stopped going to the DR,

Yup me. Ferrous suplhate tablets changed my life! For years I was always pale, tired, felt spaced out, couldn’t get fitter no matter how much exercise I did. “ent on 3 tablets a day and noticed a difference in a week or 10 days, now on just 1 a day to keep levels up. I seem to just be naturally low in iron, as was my mum. Have given up giving blood as get refused every time for being to low in iron.

project – your friend’s symptoms are pretty much at the extreme end of the scale, and the doctors would rightly be asking what the cause was.

I have had tests before – camera up the bum. Thats the only reason I’m going back to the docs really….

yes, i was anaemic on and off for years didn’t know why till a GP i went too tested me for Coeliac. this was my problem and now i am a lot better except i have too eat crappy food on my own in the corner:-(

yes, i was anaemic on and off for years didn’t know why till a GP i went too tested me for Coeliac. this was my problem and now i am a lot better except i have too eat crappy food on my own in the corner:-(

That’s a shame repatriot – what’s bad about it?

Little Miss Tricky’s been coeliac for the last 7 years and we all eat gluten free all the time.

MrsT

not that bad really just after eating ordinary foods for nearly 40 years and then you change your diet, it takes some adjustment. rather be well than how i was before.

Yes, coeliac can be pretty grim – Miss T was off school for 4 months before diagnosis. I reckon it took abut a year before I felt comfortable with all the food options – she’s now a veggie as well, which has made it even more interesting!

MrsT

Anaemia is unusual in blokes, as noted above, unless there is a specific cause.

Symptoms include: lethargy, weakness, dizzy spells and feeling faint. Although loads of people don’t really have any symptoms.

Causes include: Iron deficiency, secondary to acute or chronic blood loss, dietary insufficiency; B12 and Follate deficiency; bone marrow problems; Chronic disease; inappropriate breakdown of red blood cells (usually some sort of hereditory weirdness.

Treatment is very much dependent on the underlying cause……

I never had any specific symptoms, it was picked up on a routine blood test. They can normally determine from tests whether it’s likely to be caused by lack of iron or lack of B12 and from this decide if further tests might be necessary.

Had some tests to check wasn’t losing blood in intestines, then ‘treated’ with ferrous sulphate, I say ‘treated’ because 6 months of tablets 3 times a day didn’t make much difference. I was then tested for coeliac which was negative. I’m meant to still take the tablets but I don’t because the only difference I feel on them is they make me feel sick, feel fine without.