Symptoms of Anemia

sapphire1166

So for the past week I've felt lightly dizzy when standing up. The last few days I've had a very low grade fever of 99.8, mild dizziness, mild headache, weakness, and shortness of breath with minimal exertion.

Being the internet doctor I am, a lot of my symptoms line up with anemia, but there's some controversy if it causes a low fever. Looking at my diary for the past few weeks I see that some days I was no where near my suggested iron, and other days I came somewhat close, but not quite.

Before spending big bucks at the doctor I'd like to try eating some more food high in iron. Besides spinach, what can you recommend?

2013sk

I would look at how many calories your actually eating??

Sounds like your not eating enough? How much water are drinking?

Eating lots of fruit, vegetables, greens, protein etc?

yarwell

Feeling dizzy when standing up points to low blood pressure - try increasing sodium intake if that is the case (get it measured by doc or at a pharmacy).

I'm anaemic, if your heart rate goes to maximum when you run or you have to use all the gears on a bike to keep your heart inside your rib cage that points to anaemia.

CamGoddess

Clams! Very high in iron. You have to check the label tho. Some brands have little (one of the major "minced" canned brands).

You'd think since clams are so high in iron, that other shellfish and fish would be too but they don't compare. (You might want to check canned salmon with the crunchy little edible bones tho.)

Red meat. Hard to find lean beef, but beef is high compared to other meats.

Organ meats I think like liver, but I don't eat them because I don't like them & I worry about getting gout & if they're unhealthy.

There are also iron tablets. There's black tablets (that I should take, but they make me queasy.)

The white time released SlowFe isn't as effective as the black tablets. I remember reading they're digested later in the digestive tract & makes them lose their effectiveness. However, sometimes it L&D the only iron supplement a person can handle since they don't have the same nausea side effects.

Back to if it's really anemia ... Hopefully you can get a blood test from a doctor. There are actually several kinds of anemia, some b12 deficiency, pernicious, ferrous, and they have different causes/treatments.

It doesn't usually come on suddenly like that, but over months or even years.

That said, average american women frequently have low levels of anemia. I personally am extremely anemic & am supposed to be working hard to correct it! They'll often have you mail in a stool sample swabbing (fun!) called a fecal occult blood test (FOBT) to make sure you aren't bleeding internally & other things to rule out. For me, I'm having ridiculously heavy periods because I'm premenopausal & my doctor has only found that as my cause.

Supplementing your iron should cause you to suddenly feel much more alive and energetic.

I haven't heard of a fever? It can make you feel sick tho, your sclera (inner eyelids) won't be red but pale, gums pale, nail beds pale, give you chest pains, headaches, lethargic, dry itchy skin, insomnia, fun times! Go onto webmd or mayo clinic to read more.

RodaRose

The fever is problematic. Call the doctor.