Anemia is a condition where the body has a lower than normal number of red blood cells or a reduced amount of hemoglobin in the blood, causing the body to lack oxygen supply to various organs. This results in symptoms such as fatigue, easy tiredness, and paleness.
Symptoms of Anemia
- Easy tiredness, fatigue
- Dizziness, lightheadedness, fainting
- Paleness, yellowing, or pale lips
- Rapid heartbeat, palpitations
- Cold hands and feet
- Shortness of breath or breathlessness
- Weight loss
- Difficulty performing daily activities that were previously manageable
Although annual health check-ups have increased nowadays, these individuals are still increasingly found and not decreasing. This is because of neglecting anemia problems when only mild anemia is detected or thinking that just taking blood tonic medicine will cure it…
Does anemia really go away on its own? When buying medicine by yourself without finding the cause, which blood tonic medicine should you choose? What should you tell the pharmacist? Why does anemia get worse the more you take the medicine? Is it fake medicine, a placebo, or are we fooling ourselves that nothing is wrong? In cases where there is coronary artery disease or cerebrovascular disease as a chronic condition along with anemia from any cause, the symptoms can clearly worsen, as the blood supply to organs that are always prone to ischemia decreases further.
Common situations frequently seen by hematologists
- Have donated blood multiple times, took prescribed blood tonic medicine but anemia did not improve, so stopped donating blood
- Anemia progressively worsens until symptoms appear, with reports of anemia from annual health check-ups but ignored because there was no fatigue and thought it was not a problem
- Wants to undergo surgery for treatment, but the surgeon refuses to operate due to severe anemia that is unacceptable, unable to find blood due to sudden shortage, hospital unprepared?
- The more blood components are given, the worse the anemia, the more tired, and the symptoms worsen
- Continuously treated for coronary artery disease, taking medication regularly but increasingly tired
- Back pain, chest tightness, X-ray shows abnormalities in the spinal column
- Have been taking vitamin supplements on their own for many years, then consult a doctor whether to continue taking them
- Consulted for anemia in the emergency room due to brain hemorrhage with severe anemia causing fainting and head injury from falling
- Bring blood test results showing anemia and ask the doctor what medicine to take, refusing further examination
These events arise from increased knowledge from online media but without filtering whether the problem matches their own condition, leading to misunderstandings. Easy access to medication without sufficient information about the cause of anemia results in taking the wrong type of blood tonic medicine, neglecting health check-up results until problems arise and then seeking treatment, incurring high costs when unavoidable problems occur despite having had the opportunity to prevent them.
The initial diagnosis that doctors often give is severe anemia that requires finding the cause first to treat appropriately. Receiving blood components or taking blood tonic medicine may be more of a symptomatic treatment rather than addressing the root cause.
Article by
Dr. Sirawit Samanwakit
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