SELF-HELP PREVENTION: MORE ABOUT ANAEMIA
Anyone eating a low-quality diet-as people on low incomes and fanatical slimmers may be doing-is especially at risk of anaemia. Vegetarians are also prime targets, unless they take care to eat enough of the non-meat sources of iron, of which there are several. The best are Soya beans, yeast extract and almonds. Because vegetarians eat a lot of foods with a high vitamin Ñ content they get more value out of the iron they do eat.
Millions of people throughout the world are mildly deficient in iron without realizing it. They are more tired than they should be, have more infections than they should have and generally lack energy. As the anaemia becomes more severe the person becomes physically and mentally tired on the slightest exertion, and eventually even breathless at rest. Angina pectoris can occur as the heart finds it difficult to extract enough oxygen from the blood it receives and some iron-deficient people complain of ‘poor circulation’, especially in their legs. Evidence is accumulating that suggests that voluntary activity is reduced in experimental animals with a mild iron deficiency in which severe anaemia has not yet developed. Although this is still controversial the finding has been supported by one human study. If this is confirmed it could make doctors totally review their current views on optimal iron levels. This would be of special interest to hematologists who assume that unless iron deficiency produces anaemia there is little or no adverse effect on a person’s health. It is also interesting that mild iron deficiency (producing only a mild anaemia) increases the absorption of the potentially toxic elements lead and cadmium.
What causes it?
There are literally scores of causes of anaemia but the commonest are:
• Too little iron in the diet (or, at least, too little iron in the right form for absorption).
• A loss of blood. Anaemia caused in this way is also a form of iron-deficiency anaemia-the body does not have sufficient iron to make the replacement blood.
Prevention
• Look for and treat any cause of blood loss. This will need the help of your doctor.
Increase your intake of bread, cereals, potatoes and vegetables. These supply two-thirds f our iron in the UK because although meat and fish (which supply the rest) are richer in iron, we eat much less of them. Other iron-containing foods include black pudding, sprats, liver and sardines. Green, leafy vegetables are rich in iron (but not spinach more than others!).
• Take an iron-containing preparation during vulnerable times (heavy periods, repeated pregnancies, un-operated bleeding piles, peptic ulcers, etc.).
• Take 1 g vitamin Ñ a day as this appears to increase the absorption of iron from the intestine.
*96/72/5*
