Transcription
So, the causes of iron deficiency anemia are decreased supply, increased demand, or loss. Decrease supply: We said nutritional deficiency or malabsorption. Nutritional deficiency: It says prematurely premature babies are more at risk from getting our deficiency. In poverty, nutritional deficiency is not getting enough food or enough minerals. Also, old age has the same problem as the kids' diet. Some people who are strict vegans, they are not getting enough heme iron. So, as we have said before, there are two types: the heme that we get from meat products and the non-heme from the vegetables. The heme iron is better absorbed than the non-heme. So, people who are strict vegans, they eat only vegetables; there is increased risk of getting iron deficiency anemia. Malabsorption, such as celiac disease or post-gastric surgery, has an increased demand.
Increase utilization, such as pregnancy: So the lady is not only feeding her body; she's feeding two bodies. She needs more iron. Also, lactation, same concept. Growth: I'm needing more iron because I'm building new cells. Loss, such as blood loss or intravascular hemolysis. Blood loss, such as peptic ulcer disease, Meckel's diverticulum. Peptic ulcers usually in adults; Meckel's in kids, because Meckel's has some gastric tissue in them sometimes, so they can bleed. Hookworm infection, hookworm such as Ancylostoma duodenale or Necator americanus. And so lost my dog, Nellie, or Necator americanus. Colon polyps can bleed. Colon cancer, of course, can bleed. They will lead to blood loss, which will lead to iron deficiency anemia. Intravascular hemolysis has to be intravascular; so the blood will get broken down, and then eventually they will go through the kidney, and they will lose a lot of iron there. So we have microangiopathic hemolytic anemia and a condition called paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria. These are the causes of iron deficiency anemia: decreased supply, increased demand, or blood loss.