What causes anemia?

If you have anemia, you must pay attention to actively replenishing blood. At the same time, you must also pay attention to fully understanding the causes of anemia, such as poor hematopoietic function, lack of hematopoietic substances, and acute massive blood loss, all of which may cause anemia.

1. Poor hematopoietic function

When the bone marrow hematopoietic function is damaged by some chemical, physical, toxic or other unknown factors, anemia will occur. This type of anemia often also causes a decrease in white blood cells and platelets, which is medically called aplastic anemia.

2. Lack of hematopoietic substances

Hematopoietic substances mainly include vitamin B12, folic acid, vitamin B2, pantothenic acid, vitamin B1, iron, cobalt, copper and some important amino acids. Lack of any of the above substances may cause anemia. The most common of these are iron deficiency anemia caused by iron deficiency and megaloblastic anemia caused by vitamin B12 or folic acid deficiency.

3. Increased destruction of red blood cells

Anemia caused by increased destruction of red blood cells is called hemolytic anemia. Under normal circumstances, the average lifespan of human red blood cells is 120 days, after which they age and break down. Some congenital or acquired factors can shorten the life of red blood cells and accelerate their destruction, thus causing anemia, which is often accompanied by symptoms such as jaundice, fever, and hepatosplenomegaly.

4. Bleeding

Acute massive blood loss, such as massive upper gastrointestinal bleeding and traumatic bleeding, can cause acute hemorrhagic anemia; chronic blood loss such as menorrhagia, hemorrhoids, and other small amounts of chronic blood loss can also cause anemia.