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Anaemia in patients qith Type 2 diabetes

Oldvatr

Expert
Messages
8,453
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Having just been diagnosed with iron deficiency anaemia, I am researching this. I have just come across the following study
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/anemia/2015/354737/

I see on the ADA website that the general populace has a rate of around 2%, but the rate quoted by ADA for diabetics is 25% but they make no distinction on DM type.

NICE has no reference to anaemia on their diabetes info from what I can see. ADA recommend doctors screen diabetics for anaemia but my GP only picked my problem up because I asked for a B12 test and I got the WBC test in full which showed a low red cell count.

At 25% incidence, this is a major complication for T2D that I was not aware of. No cause has been identified for this..
 
Interesting.
Last things first, anaemia can make your HbA1c look higher than it really is; so people get their glucose lowering medication increased, when what they need is their anaemia sorting.
Iron deficiency anaemia probably means that you are losing blood somewhere eg stomach or large bowel; 50 mls loss per day will make you aneamic, but you need to lose 200mls blood to see it. Other causes would include heavy periods, blood cells breaking up (haemolytic anaemia); being vegetarian might be a cause, but I would not buy it in a UK citizen; and IV drug users get it cos of blood loss when injecting and poor diet.
There are several reasons why diabetic folk are a bit more prone to iron deficiency.
I guess that you want to ask your GP why you have the iron deficiency anaemia, but I would suspect that he/she is already on the case.
 
@Oldvatr

Do you not get the full blood count tests when you have your HbA1c? I thought this was normal. I always get one, along with the HbA1c, cholesterol, lipids, liver and kidney functions etc. I also get vit and mineral tests if I ask.

I can't think of a reason why diabetics should be prone to iron deficiency anaemia, but it could be the other way round in that iron deficiency anaemics may be prone to T2 simply because an HbA1c can diagnose them as T2 when in fact they aren't really. (due to possibility of HbA1c being falsely high) This is why anaemics should have the Fructosamine test rather than the HbA1c but not many doctors will do this test. I know mine doesn't.
 
people with a much raised iron level in their bodies also seem to get diabetes more frequently than average people with normal levels of iron..

what many people do not know is that iron is only uptaken if there is vitamin C in the same meal as the iron filled foods...
therefor parsley is ideal as it conttains both vitamin C and iron.., which red meat doesn´t..but if one drink water with a squeese of lemon with the red meat meal then one will uptake iron better....
well just to mention that low carbers must remember that vitamin C is essential every day at the most ideal kind of eating style...
kale it also filled wit lots of vitamin C and some iron..
 
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Yes, I just recently found out about this, but GP does not believe me. Certainly this last year on LCHF I dropped fruit off the menu, and this caused low feretin in my case. My white cell count and leucocytes were up this last test and it appears I have an infection as well - awaiting lab results now.

Beware that although spinach is full of iron, there is a chemical in spinach that prevents absorption. I was eating shedloads of spinach recently thinking it was doing me good - Oopsie! FAIL!

I have always been borderline anaemic, so a small problem will drop me into the relegation zone GP is not concerned, and we will try harder to increase feretin this next quarter. My last test showed it rising even after stopping the iron tabs.
 

well it is not as common that men are anemic in iron as women,who very often are anemic as younger women because of their periods and older women because they often eat too little and if not very concious about it and not eating much meat they become anemic..
another reason that people do become anemic is that when they don´t move they need less calories which also lead to less iron passing through their bodies long term..
but many GP´s would be worried if a man lacks iron and his level is very low as it can also be because of cancer and/or an internal bleeding... and if it was concerning me I would say yes to a very thorow excamination
 
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My GP has me on annual review, and I usually get the standard test. HbA1c, TC, Estimated GFR, Liver function. I do not normally get any lipid breakdown, or vits at all. Certainly a WBC test is a special one off. I had to ask for my B12 to be checked and justify why (metformin long term) It is not my GP's fault but the practice protocols decided by the quango that controls the purse strings (CCG).
 
I had this the other year and had to go in for the day to hospital as an out patient of course to have soem iron infussions i realy felt fir after them ....could do with soem more i am thinking....
 
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