by Maeya » Thu Nov 09, 2006 6:33 am
There are a couple different kinds of anemia. Iron will only *really* help you if it's an iron deficency anemia. It can't hurt to take it, though. Folic acid suppliments, too. Folic acid helps with the development of new blood cells. My doctor also told me that it helps skin & hair look nice, but I'd never heard that anywhere else. If you have a hemolytic anemia, though, then the suppliments can't hurt, but they won't help as much as they should.
Being tired & craving ice are a couple of symptoms. Other possible symptoms may include extreme shortness of breath, killer headaches, and paleness in the lips & fingernails, depending on what sort of anemia it is. One test my mom would also use on me is she'd push on my nail bed and see how long it'd take the blood to fill back in. It should be nearly immediately.
Those were the symptoms I had a couple years back when my anemia got *really* bad, and my hemoglobin levels dropped from their normal 10/10.5 down to 4, which ended up with me in the hospital getting a blood transfusion. But I have one particular kind of anemia, Spherocytosis, which means that my blood cells are more spherical than disc shaped, so they get destroyed within 12 or so days rather than 120. If you simply have an iron deficiency anemia, then the OTC suppliments could help a lot.