What causes anemia?

Anemia is one of the most common blood conditions in the United States affecting 3.5 million people in any given year. Watch this video from Dr. Randy P. Martin to learn about the causes of anemia.

Transcript

00:00

So blood loss is the number one way. Number two is decrease in a proper production of red blood cells.

00:06

And that could occur in things like sickle cell anemia, where the blood cells have an abnormal shape. [MELLOW MUSIC]

00:20

Anemia is one of the most common blood conditions in the United States. And it's said that we have about 3 and 1/2 million people who

00:27

are anemic in any given year. So what do we mean by anemia? It simply means that you don't have enough red blood cells.

00:33

And those red blood cells, or as we call them, RBCs, take oxygen to the body. So how do you become anemic?

00:40

The first way is blood loss. If you think you had a major wound and you bled a lot, then you're gonna be anemic.

00:46

But the more common way that blood loss occurs is chronic small loss of blood. Could occur with menstruation.

00:53

Women who menstruate heavily can become anemic. Or a more common way is chronic irritation of your gastrointestinal-- your stomach and your intestines.

01:01

And the most common offender of that? There are things like aspirin and other non-steroidals. So blood loss is the number one way.

01:08

Number two is decrease in a proper production of red blood cells. And that could occur in things like sickle cell anemia,

01:16

where the blood cells have an abnormal shape, and so they get destroyed sooner. Or if your diet has a low amount of iron

01:24

in it so you get iron deficiency diet, an iron deficiency anemia then develops. Or women who are breastfeeding can become anemic.

01:33

So iron deficiency is another way. Interestingly, vegetarians often can become iron deficient.

01:39

And the third way is really increased destruction of red blood cells. That doesn't occur very commonly.

01:45

It can occur in people who have artificial heart valves and things like that. So the most common ways that people become anemic

01:53

is chronic blood loss or inadequate diet, where you're not getting enough iron or some of the other key ingredients, like vitamin B12 and folate.