Re: MN's heart racing From: Polly Date: 9/15/98 Time: 9:56:47 AM Remote User: Comments This post may also pertain. I got it off of a newsgroup. It has some interesting things to say about anemia being undetected when you are dehydrated. This anemia is not due to a lack of iron, but due to the iron being bound too tightly. From: "D. Williams" Newsgroups: alt.med.fibromyalgia,alt.health.cfs,alt.support.lupus,alt.support.mult- scelosis,uk.people.support.mult-scelosis Subject: YOUR HIDDEN ANEMIA !@!@!@ Date: Sun, 07 Jun 1998 11:43:40 -0500 Someone wrote: > Interesting....as you relate the diseases, Lupus, FM and CFS there is also a co-cousin to MS called Hereditary Biochemical MS being studied which also seems to tie in with the iron-deficiency idea. Have you heard of this? If not, check out http://junior.apk.net/~rnr/. > I've been told, by various doctors, that I have: FM; CFS; and MS.!!!??? Very frustrating!! I'm not sure which chat or support sites I really should be on!!!! I feel like an outcast and/or an imposter until I find out exactly which one. I seem to fit all the categories whenever I am at a particular site so maybe they are related. It's been more than 10 years with symptoms and 5 years under doctors' care. I'm glad you mentioned MS. It sure looks like your right that Lupus, FM, CFS, and MS are all related. The symptoms all seemed to be caused by increased cytokine production and by upregulated nitric oxide. In the case of MS and Lupus, researchers are further along tracing the cytokine/nitric oxide connection. Many good articles are available indicating the problem. What's really scary here is that the iron reutilization/utilization anemias associated with these illnesses does not show up on a blood test because most of those who suffer CFS, FM, MS and Lupus, also suffer from adrenal exhaustion and a degree of hypovolemia (low plasma volume due to dehydration). This type of amemia is called the "Anemia of Chronic Illness." Those who suffer know damn well these illness are friggin "chronic," (my sickness has lasted over 20 years). Every blood test conducted on you, even several years before you became ill, is likely to have false readings! A person has, on average, 5 liters of blood, but only 2.25 liters (45%) of this blood is cells. The rest is called plasma, which consists of 93% water and 7% solids (mostly proteins, the greatest proportion of which is albumin). It's this 93% water that is reduced in people with low cortisol and low adrenal output,which makes the blood a little thicker and more concentrated. All you have to do is be dyehydrated for 30 minutes and your blood will lose an equal percentage of its water to correspond with your lack of body fluids. When counting red cells (RBC), the machine counts the number in a tiny sample of whole blood from the patient, then multiplies these numbers by the volume of an average "hydrated" person. If you're low on plasma volume because you're slightly dehydrated, your blood is concentrated and will contain more red cells per deciliter then it would if you were hydrated. The machine don't know the difference. The true red cell count for a person who is dehydrated will be lower than the CBC reads. The numbers could easily be 10 % lower, and you have anemia and neither you or your doctor know anything about it. The same thing applies to hemoglobin (HGB). This test is measured as unit mass per volume, specifically grams per deciliter (g/dL). Therefore, if you blood volume is low, your HGB will be artificially high and you could have anemia and not know it. Even if the false numbers show you're borderline low, your doctor will likely say, "oh, that's nothing to worry about." Hematocrit (HCT), also called the packed cell volume, is a measure of the total volume of red cells relative to the total volume of whole blood in a sample. The normal range is 0.37 - 0.47 L/L for females, and 0.42 - 0.52 L/L for males. This test will usually read properly because it is measuring your own red cells against your volume in the test tube. It's a wash out with this measure since you are really anemic and low on red cells and also low on volume. Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) is arrived at by the formula: MCV = hematocrit ÷ rbc count. Since hematocrit is normal in this situation and red cells are usually borderline low even thought the count is wrong, this test is biased toward the high side and, in a person suffering form these illnesses, the numbers will often read near the high end of normal. Mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) represents the average mass of hemoglobin in the RBC. The value is determined by the formula, MCH = hemoglobin x 10 ÷ rbc count. Since, in a person with our illnesses is usually dehydrated at the time of blood draw, hemoglobin and RBC are both artificial higher than they should be, yet still in relative relationship to each other. This means that MCH will usually be normal (and meaningless) in the person with low plasma volume. Mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) is the average concentration of hemoglobin in the red cell. Since whole blood is about one-half cells by volume, and all of the hemoglobin is confined to the cells, you would correctly expect the MCHC to be roughly twice the value for hemoglobin in whole blood and to be expressed in the same units; the normal range is 32 - 36 g/dL. The value is calculated using the formula, MCHC [in g/dL] = hemoglobin [in g/dL] ÷ hematocrit [in L/L] Cells with normal, high, and low MCHC are referred to as normochromic, hyperchromic, and hypochromic, respectively. Since the hemoglobin and the hematocrit are both in question in a person with low plasma volume, so is the MCHC. These red cell measurements are important numbers in anemia classification, and without reliable counts, your doctor has no chance of diagnosing anemia let alone classifying it. Even if he did diagnose anemia, he would have no idea of what type of anemia. There is even medical research done on humans in space indicating that because your hemoglobin and red cell numbers are concentrated in the blood stream, your body senses the increased levels and actually changes your set point. In other words, your body is not sensing the low plasma volume, and you fall into a situation whereby your own body is down-regulating the numbers by not turning up the signals to build more red cells and make more hemoglobin. Couple this with the fact that cytokines and nitric oxide are also pushing the red cells numbers and hemoglobin lower, plus "locking" the iron in storage, and you begin to understand why you feel so shitty. This problem not only applies to iron in the red cells, it also applies To iron in all the iron-requiring enzymes and proteins. There is about 3800 mg of iron-containing compounds in the average human--all could be effected, creating some weird symptoms that defies explanation by most doctors and draws that look of disbelief when you describe the symptom in his/her office. For example: Chromochrome p450 is an iron-containing enzyme involved in drug metabolism. If everything is not right with this enzyme, you will respond differently to most drugs (likely super sensitive), which is often reported in these illnesses. I could go on and on here but you get the point. I consider this masked red cell problem the greatest single idiotic blunder the medical community has made in the treatment of these illnesses. They've known about the dehydration for years but not one single doctor has figured out that the damned CBC blood test were biased against showing the problem. I recently spoke with a hemotologist who actually told me that artificial reading numbers during a condition of low plasma volume were a little to hypothetical for him to sort out. One fact is certain, in my opinion, if you are ever to recover, you must First improve your red cell health!!!!!! This is not going to be an easy job Since you'll likely have to do it without your doctors help. Most doctors I know would look at you like your crazy, especially if you brought this post in with you and showed it to him/her. Dave Williams http://www.serve.com/licorice PS: The site contains little about MS and Lupus, but 90% of the stuff written applies to these two conditions as well (also applies to other autoimmune diseases). Please vist all you want but overlook the rough draft format of the site--I'm trying as hard as I can to get it updated.