What Are the Causes of Iron Deficiency Anemia?

Anemia is a common issue in daily life, especially for women, who are more likely to suffer from it. However, there are many types of anemia, such as general anemia, iron-deficiency anemia, and thalassemia, and the treatment methods vary accordingly. The specific causes of iron-deficiency anemia include nutritional factors, chronic blood loss, and absorption barriers.

The main reasons for nutritional factors are inadequate iron intake or unreasonable dietary structure. Most people in China consume a diet dominated by grains and vegetables with less meat. The iron in the diet is mainly non-heme iron, which contains a large amount of substances that inhibit the absorption of non-heme iron. Although the iron supply in Chinese food is not scarce and may even exceed the standard supply by more than onefold, not all of the iron provided can be absorbed. When the physiological need for iron increases, such as during infancy, adolescence, and women's reproductive period, it is difficult to obtain the required iron solely from food, leading to iron-deficiency anemia.

If a person suffers from chronic blood loss diseases, such as gastrointestinal bleeding, excessive menstrual bleeding, hematuria, epistaxis, etc., these can all lead to iron-deficiency anemia. Chronic renal insufficiency can also cause iron-deficiency anemia. In particular, chronic gastrointestinal bleeding is a common cause of chronic iron-deficiency anemia in men. Even if fecal occult blood is negative, chronic gastrointestinal bleeding cannot be completely excluded, indicating that attention should be paid to excluding gastrointestinal tumors.

Absorption barriers are commonly seen several years after total or subtotal gastrectomy. When iron stores are depleted and food enters the jejunum directly or when gastric acid levels are too low, these can affect iron absorption. Additionally, chronic diarrhea or small intestine diseases can lead to poor iron absorption, and iron can also be lost as a result of the shedding of large numbers of intestinal epithelial cells.