Nutritional anemias

Abstract

Anemia is defined as a hemoglobin concentration or hematocrit lower than the reference cutoff value, traditionally less than the fifth percentile of the distribution of hemoglobin concentration in a reference population of healthy individuals of the same gender and age. Anemia is caused by decreased production of red blood cells (RBC) and hemoglobin, increased destruction of RBC (hemolysis), or excessive blood loss. Iron deficiency plays a major role in the occurrence of anemia, but other nutritional deficiencies, nonnutritional conditions and hereditary disorders also play a role.1 In this chapter, we focus on nutritional causes of anemia.