In "Without Appointment", doctor Jimmy Mohamed takes stock of anemia.

This pathology affects more than a billion people across the globe and is most often due to iron deficiency.

On the other hand, this deficiency can have many origins: inflammatory diseases, heavy periods, or renal failure.

It is a pathology that is not well known to many French people although it is quite common: anemia.

In the sequence "the daily sores" of the program "Sans Rendez-Vous" on Europe 1, Doctor Jimmy Mohamed therefore takes stock of this disease which affects 1.62 billion people around the world, according to the WHO.

"Anemia is the result of a drop in hemoglobin", a protein that is found inside red blood cells and which allows them to carry oxygen in the blood, and therefore to our organs , he explains. 

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How does anemia start? 

This lack of hemoglobin may be due to iron deficiency, it is also one of the most common forms of anemia.

“It could be related to bleeding in the stomach or a small ulcer that bleeds slowly, certain colon cancers or inflammatory diseases will also increase your body's consumption of iron” and cause anemia.

But not all anemias are linked to a lack of iron: "if you have a massive hemorrhage, your hemoglobin will drop quickly", underlines for example Jimmy Mohamed.

"You have other vitamins, like vitamin B12 or folate which can also cause anemia."

Another possible cause of a drop in hemoglobin in the blood: renal failure, because the kidneys produce EPO, a molecule which precisely makes it possible to synthesize hemoglobin.

A diseased kidney will therefore produce less and may cause anemia. 

Anemia also exists in a chronic form, this is typically the case for women who have excessively heavy periods.

However, these women will not necessarily realize that they are anemic, since the body will implement a series of "compensatory mechanisms that will do what you are going to do with", specifies the doctor. 

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What are the symptoms ?

When the hemoglobin level in the blood is too low, several symptoms may appear, such as extreme fatigue, pallor of the skin.

"You can also feel faint or dizzy," says Jimmy Mohamed.

But there are also other signs, which reflect a lack of iron (the main cause of anemia): they are brittle nails or damaged hair.

If in doubt, the easiest way is to take a blood test. 

How is anemia treated? 

Since iron deficiency is in most cases the cause of anemia, the easiest way is not to have it.

"This is why we say that we must eat red meat (rich in iron). And if iron of animal origin is better assimilated than that of plant origin, the vegetarian diet does not pose any problem as long as we don't have a deficiency. "

Especially since we find iron in chocolate, legumes, lentils ...

Diversifying your diet therefore remains the best treatment against iron deficiency.

To know the origin of this lack in your body, you must turn to your doctor.