why can’t people with anemia (not enough iron in blood) get blood transfers from donors who have hemochromatosis (too much iron in blood)?
In: Biology
Anemia is not necessarily “not enough iron in the blood.” That can cause anemia, but a better definition would be any condition that causes your blood to not be able to carry oxygen as efficiently. This could be due to not enough iron (as iron is an essential part of hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen), but it could also be due to not enough vitamin B12 or folate (which your body uses to help make blood cells), or the red blood cells being the wrong shape (as in sickle-cell disease), or not enough RBCs being produced, or from RBCs being broken down too quickly… basically there are a number of things that can cause anemia, but infusing blood with more iron than normal isn’t going to fix all of them, and in any case the effect would be temporary.
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