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What happens if your hematocrit is low?
A low hematocrit level means the are too few red blood cells in the body. In these cases, a person may experience symptoms that signal anemia. Common symptoms include fatigue, weakness, and low energy. If a person has too many red blood cells, they have a high hematocrit level.
What causes low hematocrit levels?
Causes of low hematocrit, or anemia, include: Bleeding (ulcers, trauma, colon cancer, internal bleeding) Destruction of red blood cells (sickle cell anemia, enlarged spleen) Decreased production of red blood cells (bone marrow supression, cancer, drugs)
How do you raise your hematocrit levels?
What can I do to increase my low hematocrit? Increasing the consumption of red meat (liver in particular), fish and shellfish (oysters, clams, shrimp, and scallops), dried fruit (apricots, prunes, and peaches), green leafy vegetables, beans, iron fortified breads and cereals, all rich in iron, may help.
Does a low hematocrit mean dehydration?
Red blood cells contain a protein called hemoglobin that carries oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body. Hematocrit levels that are too high or too low can indicate a blood disorder, dehydration, or other medical conditions.
What can you do for low hematocrit?
People with extremely low red blood cell counts may need to go to the doctor to get intravenous iron or blood transfusions. If there’s an underlying health condition that’s causing the body to produce less red blood cells, then medication might be needed to help stimulate the production of new red blood cells.
Why would a patient have low hemoglobin and hematocrit?
Possible causes of low Hgb include: lack of iron in your diet, which makes it harder for your bone marrow to produce Hgb. lack of folate or vitamin B-12, which can lead to your body producing fewer red blood cells than are needed. severe blood loss after surgery or a major injury.
What does it mean if hemoglobin and hematocrit are low?
When the hemoglobin level is low, the patient has anemia. An erythrocytosis is the consequence of too many red cells; this results in hemoglobin levels above normal. The hematocrit measures the volume of red blood cells compared to the total blood volume (red blood cells and plasma).
Is hematocrit the same as iron?
Hemoglobin is the iron-based molecule type that gives blood its red color and ferries oxygen to the rest of the body. Hemoglobin is a protein in red blood cells and hematocrit is a measurement of the amount of red blood cells as related to total blood cell count.
How quickly can hematocrit change?
Hematocrit can vary from day to day or on a more long-term basis depending on altitude, season, athletic training, diet, and pregnancy, among other factors [20, 21, 22, 23, 24]. Hematocrit is a useful diagnostic tool because it can change in generally predictable ways with a health problem [25].
What might a low hematocrit value indicate?
Low hematocrit levels may be a sign of: bone marrow diseases. chronic inflammatory disease. deficiencies in nutrients such as iron, folate, or vitamin B-12. internal bleeding. hemolytic anemia.
What are the causes of a high hematocrit level?
Polycythemia vera. This is a medical condition wherein the body produces too many red blood cells.
What would cause a low hemoglobin count?
Decreased production of red blood cells (RBCs) or the hemoglobin molecule itself, or both commonly leads to a low hemoglobin (HGB) level. Nutritional deficiencies are most frequently to blame, with iron deficiency the most likely culprit.
How to lower your hematocrit levels?
If you are a smoker,the first step to lower your hematocrit levels is to stop smoking.