A Lifeline for Anemia Victims

New campaign focuses attention on this debilitating condition

THURSDAY, Feb. 28, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- Forty-three-year-old David Tanner was diagnosed with kidney disease two years ago, and blamed his illness for the crushing fatigue that forced him to change his life.

"I had to tell my 11-year-old, who is an avid hockey fan, that I was too tired to practice with him," he says. "I thought, 'I'm dying on my feet. I'm losing my will to live.'"

As it turns out, doctors discovered it wasn't his kidney disease but the anemia that accompanied it that was causing his debilitating symptoms.

"I found out that I was suffering from two illnesses, and it was anemia that was making me feel so bad. After three months of treatment for my anemia, I have all my energy back," says the father of four. A fervent New England Patriots fan, he was able to take his son to the Super Bowl this year.

His confusion about anemia is very common, according to speakers at the kickoff yesterday in New York City of a national campaign called "Anemia LifeLine." Its goal is to help people recognize anemia is often a component of many serious diseases and could be causing symptoms that victims assume are part of their primary disease.

"People do not report their symptoms of fatigue or dizziness to the doctor because they assume that these symptoms are related to cancer, when, in fact, they may be symptoms of anemia," says Kim Thiboldeaux, president and chief executive officer of The Wellness Community, a Cincinnati-based cancer-care group. "They should engage in a discussion with their health-care team so that if their symptoms mean they do, in fact, have anemia, it can be treated."

Tanner and Thiboldeaux were two of six speakers at the program's launch, which was sponsored by the Wellness Community, the National Kidney Foundation, the National Anemia Action Council and Amgen Inc., a manufacturer of an anemia medication.

Actor Danny Glover, whose father has anemia along with kidney disease, is the spokesman for the campaign.

"My father, James Glover, had chronic kidney disease and was on dialysis," Glover says. "He had no energy to even walk to the local supermarket, and had been very active and independent all his life. Proper diagnosis and treatment for anemia changed my father's life, and is what brings me here."

Anemia is a blood disorder characterized by a shortage of red blood cells. Red blood cells carry hemoglobin, a protein that carries oxygen throughout the body. Without enough oxygen, people can't function properly. Fatigue, pale skin, rapid heartbeat and coldness in the hands and feet are some common symptoms of anemia.

There are different kinds of anemia, but the Anemia LifeLine campaign is aimed primarily at those suffering from serious diseases who may also have anemia and not know it.

Anemia is common among cancer patients. Approximately 75 percent of those with cancer also have anemia because chemotherapy and radiation, besides killing cancer cells, kill many red blood cells, Thiboldeaux says.

Less well-known is anemia's link to chronic kidney disease.

About half of the approximately 20 million people with chronic kidney disease "will have some degree of anemia, and the disorder starts earlier in the onset of kidney disease than we thought," says Dr. William Keane, president of the National Kidney Foundation.

Treatment for anemia includes a modified diet, nutritional supplements and medication, says Dr. Ravi Thadhani, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who is also Tanner's doctor.

A common medication called epoetin alfa, which was developed by Amgen, mimics a hormone missing in people with anemia that stimulates bone marrow to produce red blood cells.

What To Do: For more information on anemia, you can visit Anemia LifeLine, or the Mayo Clinic.

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