Why is anemia prone to recurrence after correction?

  Many anemic patients think they are “cured” after a period of treatment and blood tests suggest that the anemia is corrected, but many of them have anemia again after a period of time, which is mostly related to the following factors.  1. Chronic blood loss is not solved: for example, if iron deficiency anemia is diagnosed and iron is given to treat the anemia, but the causes of anemia such as hemorrhoids and excessive menstruation are not properly treated, the anemia will still exist, and if the amount of blood loss exceeds the amount of iron supplementation or if the iron supplementation is stopped and the blood loss continues, the anemia will occur again.  2. Unhealthy habits are not corrected: If some patients have partial diet, diet, weight loss, excessive tea drinking, etc., after the anemia is corrected, these unhealthy eating habits are not corrected, and the patient’s intake of hematopoietic materials (such as iron, folic acid, vitamin B12, etc.) continues to decrease and iron is poorly absorbed, and the anemia recurs for a long time.  3. Suffering from some primary diseases that are difficult to be removed: such as atrophic gastritis, major gastric resection, lack of gastric acid, lack of internal factors, coupled with the short stay of food in the duodenum, which makes the hematopoietic raw materials such as iron, vitamin B12 and folic acid not absorbed in sufficient amount for a long time, leading to the recurrence of anemia.  4. Stopping medication too early: If iron deficiency anemia, hemoglobin is restored to normal, at this time, the reserve iron in the body is still lacking, many patients can’t understand this, and stop medication after blood check is normal, due to the lack of iron storage depot, after a period of consumption, anemia relapses. The recurrence rate of aplastic anemia is closely related to the length of maintenance treatment. If the drug is stopped immediately after the hemoglobin is normal, the recurrence rate is 20%, and the recurrence rate is significantly lower for those who adhere to the treatment for 2 years.  5. Irregular treatment: For example, in autoimmune hemolytic anemia, most patients can improve quickly after hormone treatment, and after the condition improves, the hormone should be gradually reduced and maintained for a period of time before stopping the drug. However, many patients (especially women) are afraid of hormone-induced obesity and other side effects, so they do not follow the doctor’s instructions and quickly stop the medication, resulting in a rebound of the disease, which is not only a relapse of anemia, but also more serious than before, and even dangerous.