Blood Work

Anemia is the direct result of an abnormal decrease in the body's red blood cells. If you have passed a lot of blood lately, you may be anemic as a result.

Red blood cells work to keep hemoglobin healthy. Hemoglobin is the protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to the tissues. There's a bit of a balancing act here in how this all works together with iron to get your body the oxygen it needs. When you lose a lot of blood the body adapts by adding water to the circulating blood volume. This, in turn, causes less and less oxygen filled hemoglobin to be circulated and eventually results in oxygen starvation.

In an effort to get more oxygen, your heart is forced to pump harder and faster than normal. In the meanwhile, all of your other organs need oxygen too and your body attempts to determine which organs need oxygen the least in order to preserve itself and survive. Generally, your skin loses out first, which is why anemic, light-skinned people look extremely pale. Your kidneys are the very next organs in line to receive reduced oxygen flow. Other side effects of anemia are:

shortness of breath

fatigue

dizziness/fainting

ringing in the ears

headaches

dimmed vision

loss of appetite

nausea

constipation

heart failure

So what in the world can you do about anemia? First off, a simple blood test will determine whether or not you are anemic. After anemia is confirmed, your doctor may direct you to take iron supplementation.

Blood loss and subsequent anemia are two primary symptoms that you need to keep an eye on and work closely with your doctor to keep it under control as much as possible. Fibroids can suck the life out of you all right. Lack of hemoglobin and subsequent lack of oxygen flowing through your body is a major hindrance to even getting out of bed in the morning. You don't want to ignore these symptoms. At all.

Link	Site Name/Author	What You'll Find
www.healthy.net/Library/journals /naturopathic/vol1no1/thyroid.htm	Journal of Naturopathic Medicine Thomas A. Kruzel, N.D.	Thyroid Function Testing: Dealing with Interpretation Difficulties. Detailed explanation of Thyroid Function Blood Tests and how to read/interpret the lab results.
www.neosoft.com/ ~uthman/blood_cells.html	Dr. Edward O. Uthman	Blood Cells and the CBC
www.neosoft.com/ ~uthman/unanemia/ unanemia_ch1.html	Dr. Edward O. Uthman	Understanding Anemia
www.neosoft.com/ ~uthman/lab_test.html	Dr. Edward O. Uthman	Interpretation of Lab Test Profiles Can you tell I like this doctor? He writes clearly and comprehensively and sticks with the science.
www.aceology.com/ med/lab/cbc.htm	ACEOLOGY MEDICAL REVIEW	Complete Blood Count (CBC)
www.ascls.org/labtesting/	Pennsylvania Society for Clinical Laboratory Science	Common laboratory tests and clear yet simply written explanations of each.
www.oxford.net/ ~tishy/fshworthless.html	Menopause and Beyond	FSH test for menopause: a worthless, single shot in the dark blood test?
families-first.com/ hotflash/faq/faq05.htm	HotFlash MenoFAQ	Is there any test for perimenopause? Discussion of estradiol and FSH tests.
www.bloodbook.com/test-result.html	BloodBook.com	What does my blood test mean?
www.medinfo.ufl.edu/pa/ chuck/spring/handouts/tests.htm	University of Florida Physician Assistant Program. Differential Diagnosis & Clinical Problem Solving	Interpreting Tests and Clinical Clues. Interesting webpage with a detailed discussion on false positives/negatives and test sensitivities.