Health encyclopaedia - Alphabetical Topic List
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Symptoms of Anaemia
General symptoms of anaemia include:
- tiredness,
- breathlessness,
- palpitations (rapid or irregular heart beats),
- dizziness, and
- headache.
If the anaemia is severe, chest pain, and leg pains can occur.
Long-term effects of iron deficiency:
- sore tongue (glossitis),
- pinful cracks at the corners of the mouth (cheilosis),
- brittle, flaking nails,
- spoon-shaped nails,
- unusual dietary cravings (pica),
- difficulty in swallowing (dysphagia),
- pallor (pale skin), and
- loss of weight.
Pernicious anaemia also causes soreness of the tongue, loss of weight, skin pallor often with a lemon tint, and intermittent diarrhoea. In untreated cases the nervous system may be affected, causing tingling of the fingers and toes, muscle weakness, pains in the legs and difficulty walking, depression and confusion.
Megablastic anaemia due to folic acid deficiency also causes soreness of the tongue, indigestion and diarrhoea.
Haemolytic anaemia also causes pale skin, often with a yellowish tinge. The spleen will be enlarged, due to ruptured red cells.
Aplastic anaemia also causes fever, sore throat, bruising and bleeding and blood spots, pale skin and signs of heart failure.
