Anemia Solutions
By Andrew Gaeddert
Anemia is this country’s most common blood disorder. Statistics indicate that 3.4 million Americans are anemic, but experts say this is a gross underestimate. As Dr. Allen R. Nissenson and his co-authors said recently in The Archives of Internal Medicine, anemia has been viewed for far too long as an “innocent bystander,” considered almost normal in certain groups, like menstruating women and the elderly. On the contrary, Dr. Nissenson, a nephrologist and professor of medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles, said in an interview. “A growing body of research indicates that anemia can seriously compromise the quality of a person’s life, make sick people sicker and even speed deaths.”[i]
Poor nutrition is the most common cause of anemia in women who lose iron in menstrual blood, pregnant women, strict vegetarians, aggressive dieters, and low income people. Increasingly, the problem is found among elderly people on restricted diets. Anemia afflicts virtually everyone with kidney disease because shrinking kidneys are not able to make enough of the hormone erythropoietin, which controls the production of red blood cells in the bone marrow. In addition, many chronic diseases involving inflammation can result in anemia, including congestive heart failure, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, AIDS, liver disease, and cancer.
There are also hereditary anemias like sickle cell and thalassemia, and hemolytic anemia’s that involve the destruction of red blood cells faster than they can be replaced. Immune disorders and medicines can also bring it on. Further, anemia can result from chronic blood loss from an ulcer, polyp, or hemorrhoid, that may not be apparent without a stool test. Chemotherapy and radiation often cause anemia, which is associated with a reduced ability to control the disease and a lower survival rate.
Marrow Plus is a modern Chinese herbal formula containing extracts of the most potent blood builders. Marrow Plus is usually combined with iron and B-vitamins for the treatment of anemias; it can also be used by itself in the treatment of blood deficiency conditions recognized by TCM. It has also been used to treat the side effects of Western treatments including chemo and radiotherapy, anti-tumor agents, and as an adjunct to blood transfusions. Marrow Plus typically improves red and white blood cell counts, and treats the symptoms of blood deficiency including fatigue, pallor, dizziness, numbness, pale tongue, thready pulse.
Notes:
- [i] Anemia: not just an innocent bystander? Arch Intern Med. 2003 Jun 23;163(12):1400-4. Erratum in: Arch Intern Med. 2003 Aug 11- 25;163(15):1820. PMID: 12824088