When we speak of a person being anaemic, we mean he is pale and the pallor is thought to be due to a lack of blood. Oxygen is carried from the lungs to the tissues attached to the red blood cells. These erythrocytes contain a substance, haemoglobin, which has a high affinity for oxygen.
This haemoglobin, which is a complex chemical, contains iron as an essential part of its make-up.
The red blood cells are made in the bone marrow. There are about five million red blood cells to every cubic millimetre of blood and the average man has about 11 pints of blood in his system.
The red cells have a life of about 120 days and when they are aged, they are broken down by the liver and the spleen. The iron in the haemoglobin is then transferred to the body’s store and can be used again.
A shortage of the element iron will lead to problems with the red blood cells — they will contain less haemoglobin and they will be less in number.
This is the condition known as iron deficiency anaemia.
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