Lupus anemia annoying

[jensen_lynne]

Why does lupus cause anemia?

[Natura]

I like to know the answer to that one too. Suddenly, out of nowehere, I get white as a ghost. I know its anemia. Should I eat veggies with vit k because I am on a blood thinner? Razy, right?

[PMRpro in reply to Natura]

Why vit K Natura? That would only help anaemia if it were due to excessive bleeding. And it depends what specific anticoagulant you are on. If you are on warfarin/coumadin you have to eat the same amount of veggies with vit K consistently so the INR remains steady. If you eat the same amount all the time and adjust the dose to keep the INR OK it doesn't matter - but you shouldn't suddenly binge on kale or spinach very occasionally!

[Natura in reply to PMRpro]

I am taking an enzyme that breaks down fibrin in the blood. Fibrin is what causes blood to clot. Drs. Are starting to use this product for clotting disorders. I went to a lecture on it. They told us 6 tablets a day was the maximum recommended. So, I take 4. My hematologist researched and said it was ok for me to take. But, I dont want to eat too much vit k veggies which causes the blood to clot, so I thought. I still end up very pale sometimes. So, i eat spinach or some form of vit k when that happens. Tricky stuff.

[PMRpro in reply to Natura]

I might be wrong but I THINK it wouldn't make any difference - the various anticoagulant things work at different points in what is called the clotting cascade. If you change one of the Factors (as they are called) it stops the whole cascade that must be completed to make the clot. If fibrin is inactivated, the vit K doesn't matter.

[Natura in reply to PMRpro]

I dont think the fibrin is inactivated. They said it was broken down. I just read an article that fibrin is a protein which forms a mesh to trap platelets and red blood cells needed to form clots. I still dont understand the anemia.

[PMRpro]

It isn't just lupus, it happens in a lot of chronic diseases and for different reasons:

rarediseases.org/rare-disea...

and this link

umm.edu/health/medical/repo...

says "Almost 85% of patients with SLE experience problems associated with abnormalities in the blood.

Anemia: About half of patients with SLE are anemic. Causes include:

Iron deficiencies resulting from excessive menstruation

Iron deficiencies from gastro-intestinal bleeding caused by some of the treatments

A specific anemia called hemolytic anemia, which destroys red blood cells

Anemia of chronic disease

Hemolytic anemia can occur with very high levels of the anticardiolipin antibody. It can be chronic or develop suddenly and be severely (acute)."

Hope this helps.

[Lara4228]

Not too sure but I get B12 shots every 3 weeks. Can't say if it isolated from my AutoImmume or not?

[PMRpro in reply to Lara4228]

The need for B12 injections is usually because of pernicious anaemia - which is often an autoimmune condition in its own right which prevents the absorption of B12 in the gut by stopping the production of intrinsic factor.

[Chanpreet_Walia LUPUS UK]

Hi Jensen_Lynne,

People with lupus are likely to become anaemic due to a poor production of red cells in the bone marrow, side-effects of medication as well as the common causes like bleeding, low iron or vitamin B12. To find out more have a read of our factsheet ‘LUPUS: and Blood Disorders’ here: lupusuk.org.uk/wp-content/u...