Question

Patient was diagnosed with anemia, hyperkalemia and osteomyelitis in the left wrist. The patient also has congestive heart failure. His Hemoglobin 7.9 (L) and Hematocrit 25.8 (L) are low.

What causes low hemoglobin?

What is causing the hematocrit to be low?

What is the body doing to have that the healthy count of red blood cells are so low?

Answer 1

This patient has osteomyelitis(bone infection) and this cause immune system to release cytokines,which can interfere with body's ability to use iron to create red blood cells.Cytokines block the production of erythropoietin,a hormone produced by the kidney, which helps bone marrow to produce red blood cells.All of this cause low hemoglobin in this patient.

Hematocrit is a ratio of the volume of red blood cells to the volume of all the components together.Hematocrit is expressed in fraction or percentage.Hematocrit test measure how many red blood cell someone has. In this case patient has anemia so the patient has low hematocrit.

How to increase healthy count of red blood cells that are so low?

1.Eat an iron rich diet like greeny vegetables,red meat,beans and legumes that increase red cell production.

2.Increase Vitamin c intake:Eat foods rich in vitamin c like orange,lemon,stawberry,bell peppers and tomato.

3.Avoid food which block the ability to absorp iron like coffee,tea and cola.

4.Increase folic acid -Eat foods with high amount of folate like beetroot,green leafy vegetables,sprouts and bananas.

5.Exercise:Moderate exercise is good because when you exercise body produce more hemoglobin to meet the requirement of the body.