While you probably can't call it an epidemic, it certainly appears to be a major health problem in this country. In the United States alone, about 3.4 million people are currently diagnosed with anemia of some sort.
But that may be only the tip of the iceberg. The real concern is the number of people who have an undiagnosed case of anemia. Anemia is not only under diagnosed, but it's also under treated. At least that's what the National Center for Health Statistics says. And that's a shame, because the fatigue-causing condition can have repercussions that can rage throughout your body.
One of the problems is that the symptoms and other indications of anemia are very often vague. More often than not, they can all too easily be mistaken for other, less serious, health problems. To compound the problem, anemic conditions may also be present in individuals who have other, more critical illnesses and diseases. These include chronic kidney disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and even HIV/AIDS and cancer.
The National Kidney Foundation, for example, has set clinical practice guidelines on the classifications system for chronic kidney disease. This group estimates that nearly 20 million Americans live with chronic kidney disease. What does this have to do with anemia? Plenty. Anemia is an early – and common – complication of this disease. And it only worsens as the kidney disease progresses. That puts nearly another 50 million Americans at a high risk for anemia.
Not only that, but the elderly population is also at greater risk for anemia. The statistics in fact are pretty incredible. The established health care community has known for a long time that older folks are more prone to developing anemia. However, the severity of the problem is now only being discovered. Health care practitioners now estimate that as many as 15 percent of those older than age 60 may have various degrees of vitamin B12 deficiency. Of those, three percent are though to have pernicious anemia, which is caused by the inability to absorb B12. This is caused by the lack of a protein simply called intrinsic factor.
Other segments of the population who are at a greater risk for developing anemia include individuals with any type of intestinal disorder. This type of health condition very often affects your body's ability to absorb and properly utilize nutrients – especially the B-complex which are vital to the creation of red blood cells.
Pregnant women are also at a greater risk of anemia, especially of the iron deficient variety.
