Anemia Symptoms In Anorexia / Eating Disorders
What Are Signs And Symptoms Of Anemia?

Anemia symptoms can appear in various forms, but they often represent a low red blood cell count. In eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, signs of anemia may be a symptom of blood loss somewhere in the body, or a situation where red blood cells are being deleted faster than they can be produced. As such, anemia is regarded as more of a symptom than an actual disease.

Our blood is basically made up of two parts -- plasma and many different types of cells, including white blood cells, platelets and red blood cells.

Of all the cell types, the red blood cells are the highest in number. They act as the vehicle that carries oxygen from the lungs to other parts of the body.

Red blood cells are produced in the bone marrow and a single cell live as long as 100 days.

Anemia symptoms are present when there are no longer enough existing, or healthy, red cells in the blood. They usually develop as a result of a long term illness, disease or disorder.

At this stage, it's known as chronic anemia. I believe that eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia would fall into this category if they have been going on for long enough. If anemia develops quickly or suddenly, then it's called, acute anemia.

Anemia Symptoms - What Are The Different Types Of Anemia?

There are three types of anemia that involve the red blood cells:

• Microcytic anemia - red cells are small than normal
• Macrocytic anemia - red cells are larger than normal
• Normochromic, or normocytic anemia

Of all the anemia types, the one most common in anorexia nervosa is normochromic (normocytic) anemia, which occurrs without iron deficiency symptoms. This means that the color and size of red cells are all normal, but there are not enough of them.

In anorexics, this can be a starvation symptom and a result of wasting away rather than the lack of a single nutrient, such as iron.

If there is no sign of a nutritional or vitamin deficiency, then doctors must consider internal bleeding (blood loss), renal failure, kidney disease, bone marrow transplant, or some other underlying condition as the cause of anemia.

The Most Common Anemia Symptoms

Anemia symptoms range from mild to severe, but it's also possible that some people experience no symptoms at all.

This condition can go undiagnosed for long periods of time (chronic) because of the body's ability to adapt and compensate for the change in blood count.

Here are a few symptoms of mild anemia:

• Feeling cold - lowered body temperature
• Bruising easilty
• Lethargy - fatigue
• Pale or yellow skin coloring
• General weakness
• Numbness, twitching muscles or burning sensations
• Ringing sounds in the ears (tinnitus)
• Weak or brittle nails - perhaps also a curved shape
• Lightheadedness
• Fast or irregular heart beat
• Low blood pressure symptoms

Any of the following signify symptoms of severe anemia:

• Chest pains - heart attack
• Fainting - passing out
• Unusually fast heart beat - "racing heart"
• Dizziness

If you experience any of the above anemia symptoms (especially if they are severe), it's imperative to seek medical treatment. Self-diagnosis is nearly impossible.

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