Stressed? Exhausted? Could be anemia

by Jen (March 12, 2007)

Lately, I’ve been incredibly run-down.  Tired all the time, having headaches, cold feet, feeling oversensitive, etc.  I assumed it was just stress - I’ve got a ridiculous amount of stuff going on.  Then something jarred my memory and I realized: “Oh, yeah.  I get anemic from time to time.”  Unfortunately, one of the first symptoms of it is becoming too brain-dead to self-diagnose.

Now, I’m not recommending you self-diagnose - you shouldn’t assume you have anemia until you’ve had a doctor do a blood test, no matter how many of the symptoms match.  But if you’re constantly tired, and no amount of sleep seems to help, and you’ve been assuming it’s all just part of being a worker or parent or being the age you’re at, etc., it’s a possibility you might want to bring up with your doctor.

Once you get a diagnosis, most cases of anemia are something you can “treat” yourself.  You just have to watch yourself for symptoms, and when they start, take a little extra iron and B-12 (B-12 is pretty harmless,  but be careful with iron because it can be toxic at high levels).  Beef is a good source of both, too.  In a way, anemia is a relief of a diagnosis because it is so easy to fix.  There’s no doubt most of us have far more stress in our lives than is healthy.  But whenever you can help yourself with something as simple as incorporating more of a mineral into your diet, that’s good news.

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