You probably have a stereotypical picture of a person with anemia in you mind: weak, lethargic, flopping around in an armchair even after a good night’s sleep. Normally, you don’t think of an anemic person as a non-stop go-getter who doesn’t know the meaning of “relax.” Or someone who eats a very healthy diet.
I don’t either. That’s why I was surprised when an analysis of my living blood revealed an iron deficiency.
I, a non-stop go-getter who doesn’t know the meaning of “relax,” was anemic.
What do you mean, I’m anemic?
When you don’t have enough healthy blood cells, which therefore aren’t carrying enough oxygen to the organs, anemia develops. Most of my red blood cells looked like doughnuts, with a semi-hole in the middle. That meant I didn’t have enough hemoglobin, a substance in the cell that is responsible from transferring oxygen to the organs. A deficiency in hemoglobin results from a deficiency in iron.
How do I know if I’m anemic?
The reason I never considered that I could be anemic is that a person can have mild anemia and not exhibit any of the typical symptoms, such as fatigue, breathlessness, and difficulty concentrating. I had been getting more tired in the afternoons, but I chalked that up to trying to start a website, take care of a toddler, and leap tall buildings in a single bound all at once.
I’ve been known to get dizzy—another symptom—while in the process of standing up sometimes, but I chalked that up to low blood pressure and/or heat.
I didn’t get short of breath, or have (I don’t think!) an unusually fast heart rate. No insomnia or leg cramps, either.
The other five types of anemia, such as B12 deficiency and sickle cell anemia, come with their own sets of symptoms, which you can find here.
How might I develop anemia?
I am the healthiest person I know. I eat clean meats. Lots of greens. How could I be anemic?
After my chiropractor—who had performed the blood analysis—sent me home with an iron supplement, I began to do some research. I discovered that many women are anemic and don’t know it. One of the main reasons is because so much iron is lost in the blood through menstruation.
Okay, no shock to me. What did confound me was the other reason women are prone to anemia:
A high fiber diet. Combined with not eating enough meat. Fiber actually inhibits the absorption of iron, so:
not getting enough iron in your diet + eating foods that prevent its aborption = iron deficiency
In other words—you’ll love this, guys—because women are more health conscious about their food choices, they don’t get enough iron. Is that ironic (oh, forgive me! I couldn’t help myself) or what?
Of course, many people have difficulty absorbing certain minerals from foods. You could eat liver all day long, but if your system had some glitch that was making iron absorption next to impossible, you could still have anemia.
Internal bleeding can also lead to anemia. A bleeding ulcer or urinary tract, or bleeding caused by taking aspirin may bring on iron-deficiency anemia.
So what I do to get rid of this nasty medical label?
Iron supplements are usually the first line of action to alleviate the condition. As I mentioned earlier, my chiropractor sent me home with an iron supplement. “You may be constipated for a couple of days,” she warned, “but it should clear up after that.”
Five days later, my bowels and I decided we would rather be anemic than to continue on that supplement. I did some more research and discovered that Spirulina
Additional ways to get yourself iron-sufficient include:
-
Take Spirulina
-
Eat your meat and vegetables separately. That’s a little on the extreme side, even for me, so I go with some of the other tips.
-
Women in their child-bearing years should eat more foods that are high in iron a few days before their period starts, the first couple days into their period, and the first week or so after giving birth (whoops—another thing I didn’t do).
-
Eat grass-fed beef/calf liver or pastured chicken livers at least once a week. I know, I know, eeew. I’ve begun serving grass-fed ground beef or buffalo with some chopped liver mixed with it. If you mix it up with a nice tomato sauce, the dry texture caused by the liver gets swallowed up nicely. Soaking liver in lemon juice, I recently read, is also supposed to tame that nasty liver flavor.
In order to be able to absorb the greatest amount of iron (as well as other nutrients), eat it raw (freeze it for two weeks, then grate it into other meat dishes) or cooked rare to medium rare.
So, could you have anemia?
**************************
There is no better supplement than Masaji, which includes both spirulina and marine phytoplankton, both good vegetarian sources of iron. Find out how it changed my life here.