Have you experienced breathlessness and a shoot up in your heart rate every time you climb mere three flights of stairs? Do you start perspiring or need to catch your breath after climbing up two flights of stairs?

Do you ever opt using the lift over stairs due to these reasons? My dear friends, then you might probably suffering from Anaemia.

Rate of Anaemia in Indian Women:

• 75% children below 5 years of age
• 51% women between 15 – 49 years of age
• 87% pregnant women

This statistics gives us a picture of how huge this problem is.

Picture: Symptoms of Anaemia in a Pregnant Woman

Lets understand more about Anaemia and ways to manage it.

In simpler words, Anaemia is the less amount of hemoglobin in blood. Medical terminology defines it as decline in oxygen carrying capacity of blood due to decreased hemoglobin levels or a decreased Red Blood Cell (RBC) count.

The normal level of hemoglobin in females is 12-16 gm/dl of blood.

10 – 11.99 gm/dl is mild Anaemia, 8 – 9.99 gm/dl is moderate Anaemia, and less than 8 gm/dl is severe Anaemia.

The most common cause of Anaemia in India is deficiency of Iron. Iron is an important element in the composition of hemoglobin. Iron deficiency Anaemia is more common among females because of loss of about 30-50 mg of iron every month during menstruation. Others include B12 deficiency Anaemia and Folate deficiency Anaemia.

Anaemia during pregnancy can lead to complications such as preterm labour, neutral tube defects in the baby and can cause a congenital defect in the child called spina bifinda (improper formation of spinal cord). Hence, it is essential for mothers-to- be to test their hemoglobin levels while planning pregnancy.

Pregnant women need 40 mg/day of Iron, which many of them do not get. Anaemia is responsible for 20-30% maternal deaths in India.

You may blame it on lack of awareness, or the oppressed status of women in India or malnutrition…but the real question is how do we fight it?

The answer is simple, by consuming Iron rich diet persistently which includes -:

– Breakfast cereals
– Cooked beans
– Pumpkin, sesame or squashed seeds
– Spinach, green pepper
– Liver and meat
– Jaggery

But is this enough?

The actual trick to increase your Iron absorption is to eat lots foods having citric acid or Vitamin C along with the iron rich diet.
Citrus food includes lemon, orange, amla, strawberry, kiwi etc. so, a glass of lemon juice with an iron fortified cereal in the morning can just do the trick. Also, avoid taking tea/coffee with it because it has tannins which hamper iron absorption.

The government has taken initiative of starting adolescent girls’ Anaemia control program. I myself remember being at school and being checked up by government medical officer who used to visit the school and provide IFA (Iron Folic Acid) tablets free of cost.
The government even provides pregnant women with free IFA tablets. This kind of supplementation is particularly necessary with vegetarians who have comparatively lesser sources of iron and folic acid compared to non vegetarians.

Glossary:

mg: milligram

gm: gram

dl: deciliter