What are the causes of iron-deficiency anemia?

Causes of iron-deficiency anemia

Iron-deficiency anemia is anemia that occurs when the body's iron stores do not meet the needs of normal red blood cell production, and is the most common form of anemia. If the body does not consume enough iron, the synthesis of hemoglobin is affected, resulting in a significant decrease in the amount of hemoglobin in the red blood cells and consequently a decrease in the number of red blood cells. As a result, the oxygen supply to various cells and tissues in the body is insufficient, which will lead to iron-deficiency anemia.

If you aren't consuming enough iron, or if you're losing too much iron, your body can't produce enough hemoglobin, and iron-deficiency anemia will eventually develop.

Causes of iron-deficiency anemia include:

• Blood loss. Blood contains iron within red blood cells. So if you lose blood, you lose some iron. Women with heavy periods are at risk of iron-deficiency anemia because they lose blood during menstruation. Slow, chronic blood loss within the body — such as from a peptic ulcer, a hiatal hernia, a colon polyp or colorectal cancer — can cause iron deficiency anemia. Gastrointestinal bleeding can result from regular use of some over-the-counter pain relievers, especially aspirin.
• A lack of iron in your diet. Your body regularly gets iron from the foods you eat. If you consume too little iron, over time your body can become iron-deficiency anemia. Examples of iron-rich foods include meat, eggs, leafy green vegetables and iron-fortified foods. For proper growth and development, infants and children need iron from their diets, too.
• An inability to absorb iron. Iron from food is absorbed into your bloodstream in your small intestine. An intestinal disorder, such as celiac disease, which affects your intestine's ability to absorb nutrients from digested food, can lead to iron-deficiency anemia. If part of your small intestine has been bypassed or removed surgically, that may affect your ability to absorb iron and other nutrients.
• Pregnancy. Without iron supplementation, iron-deficiency anemia occurs in many pregnant women because their iron stores need to serve their own increased blood volume as well as be a source of hemoglobin for the growing fetus.

What are the causes of iron-deficiency anemia?

1. Insufficient folic acid
Folic acid cannot be synthesized in the human body and must be taken from food. Foods rich in folic acid mainly include green vegetables, fruits. Animal liver and kidney. People who often do not eat vegetables and fruits, nor animal offal, are prone to insufficient intake of folic acid. Folic acid is one of the raw materials for hematopoiesis, and the lack of folic acid can also cause iron-deficiency anemia.

2. Iron is in short supply
The human body needs more iron than the general situation, such as children during the birth period, breastfeeding children and women during pregnancy and breastfeeding are people who need a lot of iron. The demand for iron in the special period is large, but the insufficient supply of iron will easily lead to the appearance of iron-deficiency anemia.

3. Vitamin B12 deficiency
Vitamin B12 in human body is also mainly supplied by food, and animal food is rich in vitamin B12, such as liver, meat and kidney. Eggs and milk are second, and the content in vegetables is very small. Therefore, not eating animal food but only vegetables will also cause vitamin B12 deficiency, and the survival time of red blood cells will be moderately shortened, and although the megaloblasts in the bone marrow at all stages will increase, it will lead to defective NDA synthesis and impaired hemoglobin synthesis, which will lead to megaloblastic anemia.

4. Excessive iron loss
Free iron can be lost with aging and continuous shedding of epithelial cells in the gastrointestinal tract. In cases of major gastric resection, atrophic gastritis and steatorrhea, the rate of epithelial cell renewal is increased, so the loss of free iron is also increased. Iron-deficiency anemia not only causes a decrease in heme synthesis, which leads to iron deficiency anemia.

5. Excessive iron consumption
Since more than half of the iron in the body exists in the red blood cells, repeated and excessive blood loss can significantly deplete the iron stores in the body. Gastrointestinal bleeding, heavy menstruation, and excessive blood loss during pregnancy can all cause excessive iron consumption, which can lead to iron-deficiency anemia.

Symptoms of iron-deficiency anemia

Anemia is a common clinical condition in which the volume of red blood cells in the human peripheral blood is low and below the lower limit of the normal range.

The more common symptoms of iron-deficiency anemia, in general, are as follows.

1. General manifestations: fatigue, drowsiness, weakness, are the most common and earliest symptoms of iron-deficiency anemia. In severe cases, some patients may develop hypothermia.

2. Respiratory system: shortness of breath or dyspnea, mostly due to hypoxia or hypercapnia in the respiratory center.

3. Cardiovascular system: palpitations and shortness of breath are the most common. The patient has an accelerated heartbeat, and a soft systolic murmur can be heard in the apical or pulmonary valve region, and a diastolic murmur can be heard in severe anemia. Severe anemia or pre-existing coronary heart disease may cause angina pectoris, heart enlargement, and heart failure.

4, digestive system: loss of appetite, abdominal distension, nausea, constipation, etc. are the most common symptoms.

5. Reproductive system: Menstrual disorders, such as amenorrhea or excessive menstruation, are common in women. Hypoactive sexual desire is common in both sexes.

6. Central nervous system: dizziness, headache, tinnitus, blurred vision, inattention, drowsiness, etc. are all common symptoms. Severe anemia may lead to syncope, and elderly patients may have mental confusion and abnormal mental performance.

7. Urological system: Severe anemia may have mild proteinuria and reduced urinary concentration function, manifested as nocturnal polyuria.

8. Other (but not limited to): dry skin, dry hair, slower healing of wounds.