Find out how to tell if you are suffering from anemia…
Anemia is a fairly serious condition where your body isn’t producing enough red blood cells. When you aren’t producing the right amount of red blood cells, the tissues and organs in your body are unable to receive sufficient oxygen and nutrients.
Thankfully, it’s fairly noticeable when your body is suffering from anemia. Below you will find a long list of the symptoms common with anemia:
Common Anemia Symptoms
Anemia is a problem you may not notice at first. Your body is able to compensate for anemia when it is still in its early stages. It will likely only be noticeable when it has developed into a more serious form of the disorder.
Some of the common symptoms of anemia include:
- A tendency to become tired or fatigued very easily
- An unusually rapid heartbeat, especially when you do exercise
- Headache and shortness of breath, especially when you do exercise
- Your skin becomes very pale
- You have a hard time concentrating on your tasks
- You suffer from dizzy spells
- The muscles of your leg develop unexplained cramps
- You have a hard time sleeping, possibly developing insomnia
If you notice a few of these symptoms, it may be a sign that you have anemia.
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Signs of Specific Types of Anemia
The signs of anemia above will be an indicator of general anemia, but there are specific variations of the disorder that may present with a few different signs:
- Iron Deficiency — If your anemia is caused by a lack of iron, you may feel tingling in your feet and hands, which may be accompanied by a loss of touch. Your gait may be wobbly, you may struggle to walk normally, and your arms and legs may feel stiff. Dementia, paranoia, schizophrenia, and hallucinations are all more serious side effects of iron-deficiency anemia.
- Chronic Lead Poisoning — If you are exposed to lead for long periods of time, the chronic lead poisoning may lead to anemia. Some of the symptoms of this type of anemia include abdominal pain, vomiting, constipation, and the “lead line”–a blue-black line that forms on your gums.
- Vitamin B12 Deficiency –– If your anemia is the result of insufficient Vitamin B12 in your diet, the symptoms are the same as iron deficiency anemia: tingling in your feet and hands, dementia, paranoia, losing your sense of touch, clumsiness and stiffness, and hallucination.
- Sickle Cell Anemia –-Sickle cell anemia is a disorder common to African-Americans, and the symptoms of this type of anemia can include fatigue, greater risk of infections, severe pain in the limbs, stomach, and joints, and possibly delayed growth or development in children.
- Chronic Red Blood Cell Destruction –– Hemolytic anemia involves the destruction of blood cells, and the symptoms may include yellowed skin and the whites of your eyes (jaundice), ulcers forming on your legs, your urine turning red or brown, and the symptoms of gallstones.
- Sudden Red Blood Cell Destruction –– This type of anemia is similar to the previous disorder, but it develops quickly rather than occurring over long periods of time. The signs of this type of anemia may include pain in your abdomen, the formation of bruises beneath your skin, seizes, jaundice, your urine turning red or brown, and the same symptoms as kidney failure.
If you think you’ve got anemia, read the lists above to see if you have a few of the signs of anemia. If so, it’s time to get yourself to a doctor NOW and get it checked out. Remember, the body can usually adapt to anemia in its early stages, so by the time the symptoms are noticeable, the disorder may have worsened.
