Anemia. There are several types of anaemia but two of them are most common namely iron deficiency and pernicious anaemia. The first is associated with a reduced level of iron in the body, and the second with a reduced level of vitamin B12 and B9. In the body are typically contained 3.5 - 4.0 grams of Iron. 70% of it is linked to hemoglobin, 20% to myoglobin and the remainder is as a reserve in the form of ferritin. In both types of anaemia is characteristic the decrease in the amount of hemoglobin.
How to orient yourself that you are anemic? Firstly if the results of the preventive laboratory tests which you do like any intelligent person show that you have reduced iron and hemoglobin. Almost always there is also a slight increase (but not exceeding the physiological upper limit) of platelets and reduced hemoglobin filling of erythrocytes. Reference values can be found in the chapter
"Laboratory Tests". Besides lab tests can be observed also visible signs. For example pale skin, especially the face, unnatural nervousness, easily occurring fatigue starting even from the very first moment of awakening. It is recognized an increase of the pulse due to the onset of hypoxia as a result of the reduced hemoglobin or iron levels in it which are carriers of oxygen. To obtain more of it (oxygen) the brain resorts to acceleration of the heart rate thus achieving the oxygen flow rate needed thereto.
The reasons for the occurrence of anaemia are many but the main ones are deficiency intake of iron and vitamins B12 and B9 in food or a dysfunction of the body related to their absorption. The iron and vitamins B12 and B9 are absorbed in the jejunum i.e. the first 2/5 of the total length of the small intestine just after the duodenum. The reason for the non-utilization of B12 is mainly an autoimmune disease that leads to self-destruction of the enzyme known as intrinsic factor which serves to encapsulate the received B12 from food and its prevention from the hydrochloric acid in the stomach which otherwise inactivate B12. So in the absence of "intrinsic factor" B12 does not reach the jejunum then follows its deficit and depletion of its hepatic reserves over a period of several months to several years, slowly but surely, as pathologically increases the amount of homocysteine in plasma (it must be tested in case of anaemia).
For this reason patients with pernicious anaemia caused by lack of B12 can not derive it from the food. This latency (slow change) of running out of B12 characterizes an unnoticeable onset of pernicious anaemia until finally it acquires life-threatening proportions. If you visit а "specialist" for a medical examination and tell him about your unnaturally fast and continuously occurring fatigue, without exception, the so called doctor will start to explain you that this is related to neurological problems (very convenient explanation after all) and that you must be treaded with tranquilizers (sedatives). Due to ignorance or something else the doctor shall never, I repeat never advise you to test yourself in a laboratory for B12 and B9 deficiency and will bamboozle you while slowly and surely your condition deteriorates which in turn is great for his pocket.
I tell you all this because just such a situation took place with my mother and I had to gain a bitter experience but also academic medical knowledge by which I managed completely alone to master the onset of pernicious anaemia. After I read several medical textbooks began to realize that actually all chronic diseases of my mother are iatrogenic ("iatros" – from Latin for doctor, "genesis" - origin) i.e. caused by medical incompetence such as - permanent arrhythmia, hypertension, polyneuropathy and more.
I shall finish the theme with an incident regarding the lack of iron as main actors therein are my general practitioner and me. It was found that I was anemic (iron 5 μmol/l, hemoglobin 93 grams/l) and with a flourish my GP said: "I'll fix you right away!" Thereafter started a three month guzzle with iron containing preparations - Maltofer and Tot'hema. These are extremely aggressive to the stomach lining even with administration of inhibitors (retardants) of the proton pump - the mechanism in the stomach responsible for the secretion of hydrochloric acid and pepsin. The result of the quarterly "treatment" was more than modest. The iron from 5 μmol/l "jumped" to the physiological minimum of 12 μmol/l while the effect of the "treatment" lasted only 1 month after the end of the three months period of intake. Then again I was still anemic (low iron and hemoglobin).
In analysing the latest laboratory tests my general practitioner raised his hands and said: "I was up to here go to the head of the haematological department at the University Hospital (University Hospital" St. Marina "- Varna) - she can examine and help you." This happened in 2013 I did so. I will spare the reader a lot of time by briefly explaining that the department head not only did not have the slightest idea how to handle my anaemia but proved to be completely helpless to solve my medical problem and after numerous lab tests and exams and divination she said that people live this way for years and nothing wrong is happening to them!!!
Now that I'm aware of the terrible consequences that hypoxia causes to human health and iron deficiency anaemia is one of the most powerful factors that cause it I can only be glad that I will never see this so called "Doctor" again.
But how did the story end with my low iron and hemoglobin after all? Well I solved the problem myself! Well, not quite alone but using the same medical textbooks that are supposed to be read once by the same that "Doctor" just above mentioned. In these textbooks have been written that if the gut flora (in jejunum) has a reduced function i.e. lacks much of it in quality and quantity - for example after taking antibiotics or in case of vitamin deficiency (as it was in my case) the absorption of iron is minimized.
I knew that yogurt (containing lactobacillus bulgaricus only) is a natural probiotic (a group of chemical compounds and bacteria that make up the intestinal flora) but at the time these problems of mine developed I didn't like to eat yogurt. Apart from that I investigated which of the foods contain the most easily absorbable form of iron and I chose the dark chocolate. Personally, I use the one of Nestle but there are others with even higher content of cocoa, respectively of iron. In the textbook of biochemistry I have read that Vitamin C has a huge role in the absorption of iron from the body. After only two months eating 2 cups of Bulgarian yogurt a day, Vitamin C of 500 mg/day and a half of dark chocolate for the entire day my iron jumped from 5 to 20 μmol/l! My hemoglobin increased from 93 to 140-150 grams/l. Success! Very big success!
Already one year (at the time of writing these lines) I am glad of the result achieved confirmed by at least 5 consecutive laboratory tests. At the duration of my anaemia I have noticed that my pulse after eating was rosing to 120-130 beats/min each day, each meal. Do I need to tell you that my general practitioner gave me Alora (homeopathic remedy) to reduce it not even being able to suggest why do I develop these values of heart rhythm. He sent me back to the University Hospital Sveta Marina in Varna on the seventh floor to the "Super" Cardiologists and in particular I made an appointment with the deputy chief of the department for an examination. The cardio ultrasound exam showed that I had a great sports and a healthy heart! In my short conversation with the "super" cardiologist I explained that I have begun to eat Bulgarian yogurt to improve my health and he in sync with the main sister laughed mockingly as I was told that this is a big mistake!?! Mockery received, but no explanation for my high pulse! I left furious! I do not want ever again to see these people!
Note that in both stories that I told you about myself and my mother I have never mentioned that "doctors" asked us how we eat, how much water we drink, how much we move! I did not mentioned because no one asked! Well, it turned out to be the problem!
Finally, the problem with my pulse fought alone again! After recovery of iron and hemoglobin I forced myself to lose weight significantly. I changed radically the amount of water drunk by me (until then I drank less than 0.5 liters per day), I changed my nutrition, motor activity and that delivered results - 20 kg less for 6-7 months and pulse 60-80 beats / minute.
I want to tell you a story about my late aunt and a doctor from the same hospital - St Marina in Varna, which is shocking! It happened so that my aunt had to visit a dentist. As you understand very often in treating a tooth the dentist, inadvertently affects surrounding tissues and they become sored and bleeding. The role of platelets, fibrinogen, cholesterol and several other enzyme is to stop the bleeding within at most a few minutes. Yes but this happens if a person is healthy. The condition of my aunt unfortunately and fatally as becomes clear later in the story placed the necessity of taking over many years of anticoagulants (preparations for "thinning" the blood). These preparations have to be taken if for some reason there is a danger of blockage of a blood vessel in the heart or lungs due to the formation of a blood clot (embolism state). Her concern was that the diluted blood by the anticoagulant in the process of dental treatment can cause bleeding which can be fatal. Therefore she wished to consult a cardiologist from the University Hospital in question and in this is expressed the fatality of the incident. The same advised my aunt to stop for three days the anticoagulant and then visit the dentist as after the dental treatment to start again taking the drug for "thinning" the blood.
All this was done. My aunt stopped the receipt of "blood-thinning" drug, went to the dentist and after two weeks died of embolism! Why? Where is the mistake? The error is in the incompetence and irresponsibility of the "doctor"! In their sudden halt the biochemical effect of anticoagulants is limited to at most 72 hours, the electrical potential of red blood cells, platelets and other blood elements changes (decreases) pathologically so they aggregate (clump) freely in clusters and form a vascular plugs (thrombus). Stopping anticoagulant even for just one day can be fatal and needless to say for three days! To the formed clot took two weeks to move through the bloodstream to the lungs to cause death!
Criminal is also the ignorance of the cardiologist that on the market exist anticoagulant gels for local use i.e. to stop local bleeding of the tissues around the treated tooth. Each dentist has and uses such in its practice. Generally the situation did not require discontinuation of the fatal drug which my unfortunate aunt has been taking!
