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Anemia comes from the Greek work “Anemia” which means blood shortage. The red blood cells are responsible for producing hemoglobin. Hemoglobin transfers oxygen from the lungs to the other organs of the body. Anemia is a condition where the body lacks oxygen. The human body survives on oxygen, without which it shows various unpredictable effects.
Hemoglobin is the protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to the other cells and tissues of the body. Sometimes this hemoglobin gets decreased due to many factors. Thus anemia is a condition where the person lacks the hemoglobin content. Because hemoglobin provides the person with immunity and strength, the person goes through dizziness, fatigue, fainting, and a lot of other problems when it is found lacking in the body. This is because the anemic diseases do not provide the person with sufficient oxygen content.
A person has anemia when the body has less number of red blood corpuscles than required. The red blood corpuscles are the agents which transport oxygen to all the tissues in the body. It has been seen that people often complain of tiredness, fatigue and sudden feeling of stress. Anemia disease is the main culprit hidden behind all these problems.
The term Anemia is actually a very general term and this is found to be the most common blood disorder in the United States of America. This is the signal for the onset of various other diseases. Anemia disease occurs due to many factors like trauma, hemorrhage, transfusion effect, malignancy etc. This is also found to occur when the body lacks vitamin B12 and when the body tends to kill the old red blood cells faster than they are produced. This is seen to happen in hemolytic anemia and sickle cell anemia.
Sickle Cell Anemia Disease
Sickle cell anemia Disease is a kind of blood disorder. This is normally genetic and inherited. This is primarily made up many episodes of anemic pain. The problem mainly lies with the hemoglobin molecules. This component of the red blood corpuscles carries oxygen from the lungs to the other parts. This also brings back carbon di oxide to the lungs. In sickle cell anemia, the problem arises due to a defect in the hemoglobin. The hemoglobin molecules give up the oxygen content and then form a cluster to form long rod like structures. These structures constrict the red blood cells and make them stiff and soon they attain a sickle shape.
Red blood corpuscles are smooth and shaped like a donut. But sickled red blood cells are so formed that they cannot enter the small blood vessels. They therefore pile up and block the vessels thus depriving the organs and tissues from getting oxygen. Thus this causes pain and later leads to the damage of tissues and other vital important organs of the body. Normally, the red blood corpuscles live at least for three to four months in the bloodstream. Sickled blood cells are found to live for not longer than ten days. Thus the blood runs short of red blood cells and this causes anemia disease.
Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disorder and needs two defective genes to be caused. One comes from each parent. This kind of anemic disease is majorly found in sub Saharan Africa, South America, Cuba, Central United States of America etc. Statistics has it that one in every thousand Hispanic-American births are related to sickle cell anemia disease.
Anemia of Chronic Disease
This kind of anemia is known as the anemia of inflammation. This is seen in chronic ailments. It could be a chronic infection, chronic immune activation or any kind of malignant problem. It has been found recently that this syndrome is because of the body’s production of an element called hepcidin. This is the chief element which regulates the iron metabolism in the human body.
These chronic infections and the inflammatory diseases cause a lot of changes in the production of blood. This production of blood is called the hemapoietic system. These infections give a shorter span of life to the red blood corpuscles. The iron content is isolated in the cells that are inflamed and thus there is a decrease in the iron content. This iron is needed to produce red blood cells. Thus a low grade anemia disease develops. While the primary disease is on, these symptoms go unnoticed.
Sometimes chronic renal failure results in a kind of anemia. These are caused due to reduced erythropoietin content. Erythropoietin is a hormone for the stimulation of red blood cell production in the bone marrow.
