The Different Types of Anaemia

Anaemia is a deficiency (or dysfunction) of red blood cells, reducing the delivery of oxygen to the body’s tissues. This is a common driver of fatigue. Many people do not realise that there are in fact multiple types of anaemia, which include the following:

• Iron-deficiency anaemia: when there isn’t enough iron in the body, it cannot produce enough haemoglobin (a substance in red blood cells that enables them to carry oxygen around the tissues).

• Anaemia resulting from other nutrient deficiencies, such as vitamin B12 or folate: these nutrients can also impact the body’s ability to produce fully functioning red blood cells, causing them to become abnormally large, which is why they are known as megaloblastic anaemias.

• Pernicious anaemia: this is a specific type of vitamin-B12-deficiency anaemia, caused by an autoimmune attack on cells in the stomach. The stomach produces a protein that is important for absorbing vitamin B12 (known as intrinsic factor). When the body’s immune system attacks these stomach cells, vitamin B12 cannot be absorbed from the diet and, as a result, we develop a deficiency (in this way, pernicious anaemia is a form of megaloblastic anaemia).
  
  Did you realise that there are multiple types of anaemia? Let me know in the comments below, this is something I often work on with clients in identifying when it comes to obstacles in the fatigue picture!