A woman in her 70s anxious about the health of her husband asked me last week: “why is he anemic when his haemoglobin level is normal?” By haemoglobin she had iron in mind. Many of us associate the blood with nothing but iron. And that’s possibly why we are a nation of iron hill gobblers. The blood is red, so are iron pills! We are not too far from the truth, though, because iron plays a critical role in blood formation and maintenance, although there is more to the blood than just iron.
Yes, one can be anaemic when one’s haemoglobin level is high. Haemoglobin is a protein molecule in red blood cells which carries oxygen from the lungs to all cells of the body and transports carbon dioxide, a waste product of their metabolism, from them back to the lungs for excretion.
Haemoglobin is a component of the red blood cell. Its structure of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen is bound together by a central atom, iron, which gives the red blood cell its red colour through the haemoglobin.
Thus, we can picture the red blood cell as a transport vehicle which bears the haemoglobin as passenger. The shape and number of red blood cells in the blood account for whether a person is anaemic or not. Red blood cells may be too small in size (microcytic), normal-sized (normocytic) or oversized (macrocytic).
Microcytic anaemia is caused more by iron deficiency. In macrocytic anaemia, a major cause is pernicious anaemia and alcoholism. There may be a problem in the stomach or in the intestine which disturbs or inhibits the absorption of Vitamin B12. Many old or aging people suffer from Macrocytic anaemia and, for this reason, the health industry has developed a sublingual form of Vitamin B12. This is placed under the tongue and is directly absorbed from there into the bloodstream. It works wonders!
Even where the red blood cell is of normal shape and haemoglobin is reasonably high, anaemia may occur if the red blood count is low. In this condition, there would be fever transport vehicles to ferry haemoglobin and oxygen to the cells and remove poisonous carbon dioxide. Such an anaemic person would be tired always and may experience fogginess in the brain. The condition will, therefore, require an investigation of what may be amiss.
Menstruation
There are many things which may be amiss either as individual or single factors or as combination factors. First, menstruating women lose blood every month. If they do not eat right, including vitamins and minerals in their diet, they may gradually suffer from low red blood count. For nutrition is one of the factors which helps us to hedge off anaemia.
Kidneys
The health of the kidneys is also important if we are to live an anaemia-free life. The red blood cells are produced in the bone marrow of the femur, that is the thigh bone, and in the pelvic bones.
These production sites are helped to produce these cells by a secretion from the kidneys called erythropoietin. That means that, without erythropoietin, the red blood count would be low. Do not be surprised, therefore, if you visit a doctor complaining about tiredness or weakness which your blood tests suggest is anaemia-related and he asks you to run a kidney function test. For anaemia is not a disease in itself, but a symptom of a disease which may include kidney disease or even a cancer.
Many people have chronic kidney disease without knowing that they do, especially because they do not run routine kidney function tests or take food supplements which help to clean up the kidney filters regularly. The kidneys are like the fuel filters of a motor vehicle. They do become clogged up with wastes. And, although they have a self-cleaning mechanism, they fare better with help from the diet which should supply cleaning factors or agents.
Traditionally, the kidneys benefit from the small flowered willow herb which shrinks enlarged prostate and has a tonic effect on the kidneys as well. There is also Bell’s Kidney cleanse and Function Tea. Dandelion and Stinging Nettle add their own pep as well to the kidney cleanse treasure trove. Chanka piedra crushes kidney stones. Amazing KD-CL prevents and crushes kidney stones. We cannot forget that great herb Cilantro and, of course, Asparagus and the Red Kidney Bean Pod. Asparagus has been reported often to be so high in Glutathione, one of the body’s leading natural antioxidant that it is believed to kill cancer cells.
In an earlier column on Asparagus, I wrote: “…it has been linked with many health benefits which include fertility, relief from premenstrual syndrome, cancer, diabetes, hang-overs, cataract, rheumatism, tuberculosis, depression, neuro-degenerative diseases and convulsions…”
As for Red Kidney Bean pod, it has had a centuries-long reputation for helping to resolve bad kidney conditions which cause water-logging, and relief for hearts troubled by this condition.
Malaria
Malaria fever damages red blood cells. Falciparum, the culprit malaria fever parasite, targets them for destruction. People who bear the AA gene in particular are traumatised by anaemia of this origin. But, happily, falciparum is easily destroyed by the water extract of Lemon grass, according to studies by the University of Lagos College of Medicine and the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO). The good news is that, today in Nigeria, Lemon grass is now available in powder form, no longer as leaf cuttings. The powder can be used as tea or added to foods such as pap, rice, beans, porridge e.t.c. Apart from its anti-malaria effects, Lemon grass is also an immune boosting herb. Europeans know about this and are wise enough to include it in products such as Spectragreen or Superior Greens, a warehouse of the powders of about 42 green plants.
Bleeding
Many people lose blood through internal bleeding without knowing they do. Such bleeding may come from stomach (peptic) or duodenal ulcer, intestinal ulcer (occult bleeding), internal piles, polyps, diverticula or cancers in any part of the body. Some women bleed so heavily from uterine fibroids and endometriosis. They almost have no energy left for anything. Such people may help their conditions through the use of astringent herbs such as the Touch Me Not (Mimosa Pudica) plant, Apple Cider Vinegar, Stinging Nettle or iron and blood replenishers as Jobelyn, Stinging Nettle, Beet root, Blood Root.
Nutrients
The quality of the food we eat is closely related to the quality of our blood. The average red blood cell lives for about 100days. It is important that, as they expire and are broken down, they are replaced, otherwise a shortfall may occur. The red blood cell requires anti-oxidant protection to enable it live to ripe old age as it were. Vitamin E provides such protection. But many diets are deficient in Vitamin E. These days, vegetable oils dominate the oil intake, and the more the vegetable oil consumption, the more the amount of Vitamin E required to protect these oils as well against deterioration. People who exercise vigorously need more Vitamin E than moderate exercisers. And when it comes to buying Vitamin E, many people can hardly tell their right arm from the left. They go for cheap brands which are usually derived from petroleum residues. These are the dl-alpha tocopherol brands. The natural brand is the d-alpha tocopherol brand. Note the difference…there is no l after the d in natural Vitamin E. Even natural Vitamin E splits into four groups…alpha, beta, delta and gama. They are all tocopherols and are better when the supplement E contains them all as mixed tocopherols.
Diabetes
Elevated blood sugar or diabetes on its own does not appear to cause anaemia. It is the complications it brings about that do. At least three of the complications forment this trouble. Diabetes damages the kidneys, sometimes causing kidney or renal failure. As already stated, a diseased kidney may be unable to produce adequate amounts of erythropoietin and this may make the bone marrow to be unable to produce enough red blood cells. Secondly, diabetes damages the nerves as well! Red blood cells are produced on the basis of need or demand. Demand or need is signalled or communicated to the bone marrow through nerve impulses or flow. When the nerves are damaged, they can hardly pick signals or transmit them. Thus, they may become incommunicado. Thirdly, some anti-diabetic drugs are known to interfere with red blood cell production if they are taken over a prolonged period of time.
Drugs
Some pharmaceutical drugs endanger the mechanism for red blood cell production. Towards the end of the 1980s or early 1990s, one of my Juniors at Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo, in the 1960s died of the complications caused by the use of such drugs. He was a vocal, nationalistic Nigerian who worked with a French-owned company in Lagos. The French did not like his mien and, so, transferred him to Maiduguri, at the opposite end of the Nigerian map, to “ool” him off. He came to Lagos about two times a month to see his young family that he left behind. On one of those travels back home, he drove his car into a ditch and was seriously injured. Fluid built up in his lungs. He was admitted to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) at Idi-Araba. In the wisdom of his doctors, he was given the drug Chloranphenecol. The drug was said to have caused him bone marrow problems from which he did not recover. He could not produce enough red blood cells to support his life. In the end, he could not produce any. This condition is called aplastic anaemia, and the end result is death.
Since his death, I have approached pharmaceutical drugs with caution, nay, fear. I feel sorry for many Nigerians who know next to nothing about them, or who do not ask their doctors for the side effects of their prescription drugs. They do not know that, because doctors know of the negative sides of these drugs, they seldom take them. It is worse for those Nigerians who find that the prescriptions of their doctors work for them but do not return to these doctors for re-fills. To cut off consultation fees from their health bills, these ignorant Nigerians patronise the road-side drugs kiosks, not even pharmacies. Here, they may buy fake drugs, expired drugs or functional drugs of dosages different from their doctor’s. To worsen matters, these drugs may not be used in conjunction with other drugs the doctor may have previously prescribed, or they may be used for longer than is desirable and safe. And when their ignorance begins to take its toll, and they are becoming tired from tired blood or low blood count, they reach out for iron-leased blood tonics when iron-deficiency anaemia may not be their primary problem. Thus, increased iron load in the body causes a high ferratin load, pains all over the body and possible liver damage.
Candida
Fungal and yeast-like, this parasite inhabits various parts of the body as a part or member of the natural flora or family. It inhabits the mouth and the throat, the intestine and, in women, the vagina. Friendly bacteria prevent candida from overgrowing its own population to the detriment of its host. But certain situations encourage it to expand the colony. One of these is the obsessive consumption of pharmaceutical drugs. These drugs kill the friendly bacteria, thereby giving candida the right of way to expand its colony. The consumption of refined sugar, elevation of blood sugar as in diabetes and a diet overloaded with carbohydrates, among many other scenarios, support candida overgrowth. This situation is the origin in some cases of many of the intestinal and other health challenges prevalent in Nigeria today. Where candida succeeds in damaging the protective lining of the intestine and crossing into the bloodstream, it may settle in any organ. Where many organs are involved, a condition known as systemic candidiasis may arise. The organs become sick, tired and devitalised. If they suffer an injury and candida hides in this, a cancer may be on the way. Some doctors have written books suggesting that “cancer is a fungus”. In the brain, candida may cause fogginess, insomnia, mental disorders, mood swings and so on.
When candida-infested blood is examined under the dark field microscope, the presentation is frightening. Cordinarily, uninfected blood presents a full spectrum reddish landscape. In the infected blood, there is a presentation of white patches interspersing the reddish topography. The red blood cells are not moving energetically. They are weak, almost moribund. In a blood check, doctors talk about haemoglobin and hematocrit. Hematocrit is the percentage of red blood cells in the blood specimen. In candida infestation, the hematocrit percentage is below normal. This equates a condition of anaemia. To restore normalcy, the overgrown candida population must be brought within normal bounds and the hematocrit expanded or regrown. Many herbs help to kill candida. The ones often mentioned in this column include Golden Seal root, Pawpaw leaf extract, Mango seed extract, Oregano, Grape seed extract, Black Walnut hull, Aloe vera, Kyolic garlic etc. A proprietary blent I have found very reliable is AMAZON A-F. It warehouses some Amazon forest herbs well researched clinically for their anti-fungal and anti-candida activities. As a candida-infested blood or tissue is often found to be de-oxygenated, the use of oxygen tablets or other oxygenating agents is suggested. The green herbs have oxygen in their molecular structure which should help. Jobelyn, arguably Nigeria’s most studied herbal blood formula, has proven itself to be one of the world’s, if not the world’s only fasted grower of the hematocrit. It has demonstrated in many studies that it can do the job from the first 24 hours of its ingestion.
Sickle cell
Arguably, this is where anaemia is most easily evident. The sickle cell challenged person is off the tracks when bitten by mosquitoes. Malaria fever steps in easily. Free radicals, too, easily have a free day, damaging red blood cells that are not picking up and transporting adequate amounts of oxygen in the first place. These cells do not live for more than 50 or 60days or half their lifespans if left alone, unprotected. Vitamin E offers helpful protection. So do other antioxidants such as Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Selenium, Zinc and Manganese. Selenium and Vitamin E work like cousins. A decade or so ago in Nigeria, we enjoyed the benefit of Selen-E, a combination of Selenium and Vitamin E supplement from Schiff in Europe. Zinc helps to fence off heavy metals harassment of sickle and normal red blood cells. Yarrow, a resolver of female problems, is one of the herbs most friendly with the bone marrow.
So much more is tied to haemoglobin, blood count, anaemia…and all that, that only a blood specialist, an haematologist, would be able to give us a bird’s eye view of it all. For me, the lesson I have learned is to consume as much of the healthy greens as I can. Obeying the command of Mother Nature, they have encapsulated for us everything that is required to form haemoglobin. Four scientists won a Nobel Prize for discovering that the Chlorophyll of the green of the plant and the haemoglobin have the same structure…Hydrogen, Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen except that Magnesium binds this structure in Chlorophyll whereas Iron binds it in haemoglobin. So, when we eat or drink green, we recharge our blood. For the body simply removes the Magnesium in Chlorophyll and replaces it with iron. I will ever remember that article in this column long ago titled…Let’s drink green…the earth is not green for the fun of it.
