Treatment and Prevention
Your doctor will ask for a blood sample that will be sent to the laboratory for a hemoglobin level. This measures the amount of hemoglobin in your blood. Your blood will also be checked for levels of white blood cells, platelets, and various other blood components. The laboratory will also look at the size and shape of your red blood cells. The different levels and how the blood cells look can tell the doctor a lot about what's causing the anemia. For instance, low red and white cells suggest a condition involving the bone marrow. The doctor will then test for other conditions, depending on the results of your initial blood test.
Treatment and Prevention
The treatment for anemia depends on the underlying illness causing it. Severe bleeding is usually treated with blood transfusions. You may also need regular transfusions of blood if you have a serious chronic type of anemia (e.g., Fanconi anemia or sickle cell anemia).
For people with sickle cell anemia, there has been a great improvement in life span (in the past, those with the disease often did not make it to adulthood).
Iron supplements are used to treat iron-deficiency anemia. Infants who have this problem tend to be bottle-fed. A baby can absorb 6 times more iron from breast milk than from cow's milk. You may want to take iron supplements for yourself when breast-feeding your child. Iron supplements will also help in cases of mild anemia that's due to GI or menstrual bleeding.
Vitamin B12, vitamin C, and folic acid are all crucial to red blood cell production; therefore, a deficiency in any one of these vitamins puts you at risk for anemia. Good sources of vitamin B12 include beef and fish. Vegetables don't contain this vitamin, so if you don't eat meat, fish, or dairy products, you'll need to take vitamin B12 supplements. Sources of folic acid include spinach and alfalfa sprouts.
When anemia is caused by decreased production of red blood cells, such as in cancer or severe kidney disease, a medication called epoetin alfa can be used. This medication mimics the action of erythropoietin, the natural hormone that causes the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells.
*All medications have both common (generic) and brand names. The brand name is what a specific manufacturer calls the product (e.g., Tylenol®). The common name is the medical name for the medication (e.g., acetaminophen). A medication may have many brand names, but only one common name. This article lists medications by their common names. For more information on brand names, speak with your doctor or pharmacist.