Let's hope no one took that advice! Good luck to everyone who's suffering from anemia, I hope you get back to your normal self soon. BUT I agree with other comments - telling a stranger to take allergy medicine is unbelievable and yet one more person with no insight or understanding.

I understand the ignorant comments - if doctors don't know, how can you expect a layperson to know anything. I asked my doctor to arrange to have my hemorrhoids removed and I put myself on iron and b12 supplements, within days of being on the supplements I started to feel better, but after more than 2 years of being totally inactive, i've got a long way to go to get fit again. Many family doctors aren't fully informed about most conditions - they know enough to send you for tests or to a specialist and so you go through a battery of unnecessary procedures and wait an unreasonable amount of time for answers. As anemia symptoms begin they often start slowly feeling a bit more tired than usual or a bit less energy, a lot of us put it down to other things that are happening in our life that might make us a little less energetic, I thought initially it was because i was getting a bit older. It's not enough that anemia takes months to restore your body's iron, but when you're dealing with medical professionals who are dismissive we have further problems. Are you kidding, i couldn't stand up without getting out of breath and when i told them that, they just thought i was lazy. It was very frustrating when docs kept telling me to exercise more. It took me 2 years of feeling pathetic and lifeless - as a larger woman, doctors just kept telling me to lose weight - but I had always been very active until then, despite my size - and no one believed me about how much blood i was losing or about how little energy I had. Some people just have low iron diets, particularly vegetarian and vegan diets - you have to eat a huge amount of veg to get the iron you need and from the actual iron you eat - you only absorb about 30% of digested iron. Some medications block the absorption of iron, such as some indigestion remedies and acid reflux medication etc.Д¬ertain foods also block iron, like coffee or anything with calcium. However, I was losing large amounts of blood from bleeding hemorrhoids, Some women lose excessive blood during menstruation, but less common causes can be related to food or medication. There are several things that can cause anemia blood loss is the most obvious, so that's why doctors send you for colonoscopies/endoscpies etc., some people have stomach ulcers or other problems in their digestive system.

Heart of iron forum