Anemia (anaemia) Overview

Anemia (anaemia) affacts one's productivity and quality of life.There are many types and causes of anemia. These can be classified into 3 categories:

anemia of chronic diseases, such as chronic kidney disease, chronic kidney disease, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV infection, AIDS, chronic inflammatory bowel disease, heart disease.
anemia due to defect, disorder of the blood system, such as aplastic (aplactic) anemia, folate-deficiency anemia, anemia - b12 deficiency (macrocytic anemia) , hemolytic anemia, hemolytic anemia - g-6-pd deficiency, sickle cell anemia, paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, hemoglobin sc disease, hereditary elliptocytosis, hereditary spherocytosis, hereditary ovalocytosis, idiopathic autoimmune hemolytic anemia, non-immune hemolytic anemia caused by chemical or physical agents, secondary immune hemolytic anemia, thalassemia.
anemia due to certain physical or nutritional problems, such as irregular menstruation, pregnancy, giving birth, surgery, aging, stress, iron deficiency, etc

In USA, it seems that most people would immediately think of taking iron supplement but nothing else when talking about or getting anemia. This is very unfortunate siince it could be seriously wrong. Iron could accumulate and damage the liver if the anemia is not due to iron deficient. Anemia due to HIV, AIDS is a typical example.

Blood production (hemopoiesis) and health involve many organs of the body. Any single chemical, either drugs or vitamine supplements, can only treat a very limited problem due to the nature of the blood making system and the limited target of a chemical. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), on the other hand, takes the whole body and the balanced functions of different organs into considerration. Particulary, TCM uses formulated (multiple) herbs to .target different organis and restore / maintain the balanced functions of the organs. Thus, TCM can provide much more efficient approach to anemia problem