How bad is it beng anemic?

My son is anemic (found out recently) and got some great advice on nutrition…

http://www.funadvice.com/q/child_doctor_anemic

for a good definition, there’s a great answer here: http://www.funadvice.com/q/anemic_person_stand_cold_deals

and as for his diet, as he’s diabetic, he’ll need to listen to the doctor to make sure that whatever iron rich foods he eats don’t exacerbate the other condition he already has.

Anemic basically just means your blood count is low. I myself suffer from this and there are things you can do and foods you can eat to build back up your blood supply Like spinach, and other dark green leafy veges, calcium, liver etc. For me the worst part is that I cannot stand the cold.. There are also supplements that the doctor would supply after his visit. The doctor would also recommend the best exercises and food for his specific needs as he is diabetic

There are two different types of aneima- normal and pernicious, Normal anemia is when you are short on iron and pernicious anemia is when your body kills the B12 in your body. Being anemic usually is not a big deal and is easily fixed with a vitamin supplement. If you dad has normally anemia he will probally have to take a daily iron vitamin and will need to make some changes in his diet to increase his iron intake. If he has pernicious anemia than he will need to either take a monthly B12 shot or B12 vitmains that are extremely high, changing his diet will not help as the body will kill any normal B12 he takes in. Anemia is usually easily treated and does not kill as long as it stays treated. (The word pernicious actually means deadly but thanks to modern medicene, people do not die from it anymore)

If you have noraml anemia, vegetables are not the best way to get iron as the containe non-heme iron which is far harder to absorb than the iron that comes from meat, particularly read meat.

Spinach is actually a very bad source of iron due to the oxilates that it has in. Leafy green vegetables are a good source generally, but meat would be better.