An extensive medical study has found that men who suffer from even a mild form of anemia are at a higher risk of dying prematurely than women who suffer from the same condition. The study was conducted by leading hematologists at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center’s (Tel Hashomer) Internal Medicine Department in Central Israel.
The discovery of this health anomaly was based on the extensive testing of 16,000 healthy men and women over a 14-year period during which both stress and blood tests were administered. The results showed that women with mild forms of anemia suffered from a depletion of fitness endurance, as opposed to women who didn’t suffer from anemia at all. The research did not reveal any long-term health issues in the women with the mild form of anemia.
“In women, the reasons for anemia usually stem a loss of iron during the menstrual cycle or a dietary or nutritional dysfunction,” claimed research team head, Dr. Roni Shouval in an exclusive interview. “Yet amongst men, it’s not so much a physiological phenomenon but more of a pathological marker that could be indicative of a chronic disease or something else. Mild anemia in men is a medical ‘red light’ that must be examined in more aggressive workups by a doctor when discovered during a simple stress or blood test.” Dr. Shouval was assisted by Dr. Sharon Katz, Dr. Shlomo Segev and Dr. Elad Maor.
According to the World Health Organization, 25% of the global population suffers from some form of anemia, which makes the discovery at Chaim Sheba Medical Center a major health issue. Even mild forms of anemia in women and men can cause chronic fatigue, heart palpitations, light-headedness and even shortness of breath.
The good news, according to Dr. Shouval, is that most forms of mild anemia in women can be treated just by taking a specified dose of iron vitamins. Because men with mild anemia do not suffer fitness endurance issues, Dr. Shouval encouraged them to continue with exercise regimen’s in order to maintain a healthy body but reiterated the need for anemic men to undergo a battery of other tests in order to determine if they are suffering from any other medical-related issues, which could impede their long-term survival rate.