When red blood cells are eliminated from the blood stream too quickly, before they have served their useful lifespan of about 120 days, it is called hemolytic anemia.
The body starts to get rid of its own cells more quickly than it creates them.
Medicine calls this breakdown in the body, hemolysis.
A surfeit of red blood cells means that the body does not have enough oxygen-rich blood circulating to the various organs and cells.
Without this oxygen-rich blood, the body cannot function properly.
Anemia's most common symptom is therefore tiredness, because the body does not get enough oxygen.
The body makes these cells within the marrow of large bones.
The marrow is in the center of the bone.
In the normal course of red blood cell life, old RBC's are eliminated and the body must be able to make new ones.
If the bone marrow can't produce enough new blood cells to make up for the normal loss, a person has this disease.
In one type of this disease, the body makes abnormal red blood cells, and in the other type, the body's immune system attacks the red blood cells.
The destruction of red blood cells can occur in the bloodstream or it can occur in the spleen.
A common form of hemolytic anemia is called sickle cell anemia, and is found mainly among those of African or Mediterranean descent.
When a person has a mild case of hemolytic anemia he or she may not even know it, and it may not need treatment.
If you think that you might have a more severe case, however, see your health care professional.
Remember, it can be controlled.
If you are on medication, that can also cause hemolytic anemia, so you may need to change or discontinue the medication.
In deciding on the proper way to treat any condition, recall what the noted philosopher Immanuel Kant once said, "Physicians think they are doing something for you by labeling what you have as a disease.
" It may be possible for your alternative health care practitioner to give you beneficial treatment for your medically assigned condition, without the use of drugs.