FOHAC News Anemia #219

Published: Sun, 10/13/13

Fair Oaks Health News

Welcome

October 13, 2013

Anemia

Hi ,

Everyone has heard of it. Most people have experienced it at some time. But just what is anemia? The topic is a little bit confusing because there are so many different types of anemia. All of them involve some sort of failure of the primary purpose of red blood cells.

What do red blood cells do? Red blood cells grab oxygen from your lungs and carry it to the cells of your body. In doing so it also transports poisonous carbon dioxide away through exhalation in a kind of gas exchange with oxygen. Even though we think of the need for oxygen first, we will actually die faster from a buildup of carbon dioxide than we will from a lack of oxygen.

What is this oxygen/carbon dioxide stuff all about? In really simple terms, your body runs on a fuel called ATP or adenosine-triphosphate. EVERYTHING that happens in your body happens because of ATP. ATP is the life force that makes you possible. Your body combines oxygen with either sugar or fat - the two energy foods - and then breaks it down to produce ATP. A byproduct of this process is carbon dioxide and this has to be removed. A second byproduct when you are breaking down (burning) sugars is a lot of free radicals that damage the body.

Because everything depends on ATP production in the body, if you have an anemia or energy production problem, anything and everything else in the body can go wrong. Fixing anemia is therefore the first step in health recovery. We don't even pay any attention to all the other symptoms a person may have, because until the anemia is cleared up, we have no idea if there really is a problem anywhere else in the body. Energy production has to be normalized first before we can accurately assess the rest of the body. So many odd symptoms simply clear up once we get the anemia under control.

Anemia is any condition of the red blood cells that interferes with the movement of oxygen to the cells and removal of the carbon dioxide. The simplest anemia is not having enough blood. Blood loss due to injury or a bleeding ulcer or any other cause produces anemia of blood loss. Not having enough blood means there is not enough oxygen going to the cells of the body and not enough carbon dioxide being carried away. Treatment: stop the blood loss if you can find the source. Sometimes finding the source of blood loss is difficult. If your blood loss is severe, then replacement (transfusions) may be necessary.

Similar to anemia from blood loss is hemolytic or blood cell destruction anemia. There are many causes for this type of anemia - some genetic, some immune dysfunction, and some are caused by poison. Treatment: if it is genetic there is little treatment other than replacement if necessary. If it's an immune dysfunction, then an immune system support is called for like vitamin D3 and immune herbs. If poisoning is the cause, then you can try to remove the poison carefully with chlorella, dry saunas, liver cleanses, etc.

Inside the red blood cells is a special molecule with a single iron atom in the center called hemoglobin. This is the stuff that grabs the oxygen from your lungs. If you do not have enough iron, you cannot make hemoglobin. When your red blood cells can't get filled up with hemoglobin, they end up tiny in size. This is the classic "iron poor blood" that most people are familiar with. The most common reason for this is poor absorption of iron from your food due to not producing enough stomach acid. The acid is required to make the iron absorbable. Low stomach acid also causes reflux that feels like too much acid, but is actually the exact opposite. Treatment: supplementary hydrochloric acid like HCL-Prozyme or Zypan and zinc to increase your own HCL production. You may need to take a good iron supplement like Ferrofood that won't irritate the stomach or cause constipation like most iron supplements.

The next type of anemia I would like to touch upon is B12 or pernicious anemia. Vitamin B12 is essential for the growth of new red blood cells. B12 is also essential for nerve function. Low levels of B12 can cause a host of neurological symptoms. The main cause of B12 deficiency is an autoimmune attack of the cells in the stomach that produce the co-factor necessary for the absorption of B12. Sometimes an h.pylori infection of the stomach can also cause this. Treatment is large doses of sublingual B12 drops. This may be needed for life if this is an autoimmune condition.

Other causes for anemia involve other things that might be going on in your body that interfere with the production of red blood cells such as a chronic illness that slows down the growth and repair of all your cells. Treatment: treat the underlying diseases.

Another is aplastic anemia in which your bone marrow shuts down the production of blood cells all together. This may be due to radiation, drugs, infection, or genes. But most often they don't know why. Treatment: if you know the cause, then treat that. If not, then improve your general health as much as possible and reduce the inflammation in your body.

Here are the basic symptoms of anemia:

General Anemia
Do you fatigue easily or have a loss of energy?
Do you have an unusual rapid heartbeat, especially w/ exercise?
Do you get short of breath and a headache especially w/ exercise?
Do you have difficulty concentrating?
Do you have dizziness?
Do you have pale skin/ gums/ nail beds?
Do you get leg cramps?
Do you have insomnia?
Iron deficiency
Do you hunger for strange things like paper, dirt, or ice?
Do your nails have an upward spoon like curvature?
Is your mouth sore w/ cracks at the corners?
B12 deficiency
Do you have the sensation of tingling pins and needles in your hands or feet?
Have you lost of your sense of touch?
Is your gait wobbly or do you have difficulty walking?
Do you have any clumsiness or stiffness in your arms and legs?
Do you have hallucinations, paranoia, or schizophrenia?
Do you have dementia?
Chronic blood loss
Do you have jaundice (yellow skin or whites of eyes)?
Is your urine brown or red?
Do you have leg ulcers?
Do you have heavy menstrual periods?
Do you have hemorrhoids, bloody, or tarry stools?

Do you have any of these symptoms? If so I recommend getting tested for anemia.

Testing for anemia involves a simple blood test called a CBC with differential. In this test a fancy machine looks at your blood under a microscope and measures the size and color of your red blood cells. It also compares the number of red cells to the number of white immune cells in order to look for different kinds of infections. I can order CBC's very inexpensively from the office - for about 1/10th the cost a hospital charges. I test my own blood every year to check on a wide number of health indicators.

So in a nutshell, anemia is due to problems in the production of red blood cells or due to the red blood cells being destroyed too rapidly or lost. Treatment is replacing the nutrients you need to make good blood cells and stopping the loss or destruction of the blood cells. If you have anemia, nothing else in your body has the fuel it needs to work properly. Fixing anemia is the first priority we have in health recovery.

Take care,

David

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On the Wire

Omega-3 fish oil may protect against alcohol-related dementia

Alcohol is a poison. It kills brain cells. Your liver can metabolize an average of 1 beer or glass of wine or shot of liquor per day, but beyond that you start to poison the brain. A preliminary study on brain cells in a lab culture has shown that the omega-3 fish oil DHA is able to protect the brain cells from alcohol exposure damage. This is not proof that it will work the same way in the human body, but if you drink it couldn't hurt to dose up on DHA in case it does work.

Alcohol DHA

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"Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact."
~ William James

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Exercise as good as pills for heart disease.

In a massive study of 340,000 patients exercise was found to be as good as heart drugs and better than stroke medicine for heart patients in terms of life expectancy. The only exception was the use of diuretics for heart patients was found to be more helpful than exercise. The conclusion is that patients need to add at least 21/5 hour of moderate exercise a week to be healthy.

Exercise

"I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once."
~ Ashleigh Brilliant

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Poop pills cure serious gut infections

Do you have healthy poop? If not you may need pills filled with a healthy person's poop to cure your gut problems caused by your bad poop. Doctors have been implanting healthy poop into sick people for some time now using tubing to carry the poop past the stomach where stomach acid would kill the good poop. Now they have invented a way to wash the waste out of the poop and keep just the bacteria they want then put them into a capsule. This makes getting the treatment with good poop much easier. This can be a lifesaver if you have a C-diff infection. About half a million Americans get this each year and 14,000 of them die from it. The poop treatment works and is the best option for folks.

Poop

"Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will."

~ Jarawala Nehru

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Our address is 9725 Fair Oaks Blvd.

Finding the new location is very easy. Coming from highway 50 up Sunrise Blvd, you turn left and go up a block. We are on the right hand side - the building just past the Subway Sandwich shop. If you are coming down Sunrise from the Mall area then just turn right on Fair Oaks Blvd and up a block on the right.

If you are coming from the Roseville area you could come down Sunrise Blvd, but that is a long trek. It is probably shorter time wise to come down Auburn Blvd - San Juan Ave like you have been for the Sunset office, but instead of turning left at Sunset, keep going straight 3 more lights to Fair Oaks Blvd and turn left. Go down 2 lights to New York Ave, go through the intersection, and immediately turn into the turn lane once the center divider ends. We are on the left.

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About Dr. DeLapp

Dr. DeLapp has been a philosopher, non-force Chiropractor, medical intuitive, and health innovator for over 30 years. He began experimenting with medical intuition in 1972 while studying physics at UC Davis. In addition to physics he designed and completed an individual major in the philosophy and psychology of education. Shortly after he choose to pursue a career in the only truly health oriented profession available at that time, Chiropractic. He graduated with honors in 1981 with his doctorate and opened a private practice.
Since that time he has continued his research into the effects of consciousness and learning on health.
He developed the Biomagnetic Retraining system for correcting movement abnormalities.
Since 1991 he has focused on developing a powerful system for uncovering and assisting the mind-body connection in health and personal growth. The in-depth coaching, guided by the subconscious direction from the body, is called Heartflow and the simpler mind-body retraining for health and unfoldment he has named Gracework. Both are available at Fair Oaks Health.

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