Pernicious anemia is a condition in which the number of fibular red blood cells is low due to a vitamin B12 deficiency. Sometimes people use pernicious anemia more broadly to refer to anemia and other problems that result from a vitamin B12 deficiency for any reason. Technically, pernicious anemia refers only to vitamin B12 deficiency due to lack of intrinsic factor (due to autoimmune gastritis). Pernicious anemia is an autoimmune disorder in which the body cannot properly absorb vitamin B12.
Pernicious anemia causes your immune system to attack stomach cells that produce a protein called intrinsic factor, which means your body cannot absorb vitamin B12. Due to inflammation in the stomach, the cells in the stomach cannot produce the intrinsic factor they should, and the body cannot absorb enough vitamin B12, causing the symptoms of pernicious anemia. Pernicious anemia occurs when intrinsic factor cannot bind to vitamin B12 or when parietal cells cannot produce intrinsic factor and vitamin B12 is not absorbed.
A vitamin B-12 deficiency can cause these and other health problems before it causes anemia. If you don’t eat enough foods that contain folic acid, vitamin B-12, or vitamin C, or if your body has trouble absorbing or processing these vitamins, anemia can result from vitamin deficiencies. Or you may develop anemia from a vitamin deficiency because your body cannot properly absorb nutrients from the food you eat.
Certain chronic diseases, such as cancer or chronic renal failure, also increase the risk of vitamin B-12 deficiency anemia by affecting vitamin C absorption. Other disorders that interfere with vitamin B12 absorption and metabolism can cause cobalamin deficiency with macrocytic anemia and neurological complications. Vitamin B12 or folate deficiency anemia occurs when a lack of one of these vitamins interferes with the body’s ability to produce fully functional red blood cells.
Pernicious anemia is a type of anemia caused by vitamin B 12 deficiency, a disease in which not enough red blood cells are produced due to malabsorption of vitamin B 12. When your body can produce enough healthy red blood cells due to a lack of vitamin B 12, you have pernicious anemia ( PA). Pernicious anemia is a disease in which large, immature nucleated cells (megaloblasts, which are the precursors of red blood cells) circulate in the blood and do not function as blood cells; is a disease caused by decreased absorption of vitamin B-12 due to a lack of intrinsic factor (IF) in the gastric mucosa.
Anemia is a problem with hemoglobin, the substance in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body. Because they can also be symptoms of other conditions, your doctor will confirm that you have anemia by doing a blood test to check your red blood cell count and hemoglobin level. Blood tests can also look for problems that can cause anemia, such as vitamin or iron deficiencies.
A complete blood count can reveal anemia in general by looking at things like hemoglobin and hematocrit levels. If a vitamin B12 deficiency is suspected to be the cause of your anemia, your doctor may evaluate your vitamin B12 levels with this type of blood test.
Once your vitamin B12 levels are within the normal range, your doctor may recommend that you take an oral dose of vitamin B12 supplements instead of injections. Later, when B12 stores return to normal, doctors may prescribe high-dose oral B12 replacements. Daily or weekly injections until vitamin B-12 levels return to normal. Treatment may include vitamin B 12 injections and folic acid tablets.
Vitamin B 12 cannot be produced by the human body and must be obtained from food. If you have pernicious anemia (and not just a problem due to insufficient intake of vitamin B12 foods), increasing your B12 intake through diet alone is usually not enough to solve the problem. It is imperative that physicians consider the possibility of pernicious anemia because treatment with vitamin B12 can greatly improve symptoms, which can become life-threatening if symptoms are not treated. Treatment for pernicious anemia is essential to avoid long-term damage to your organs.
Severe or long-term pernicious anemia can also cause other problems such as nerve damage, memory loss, and bowel problems. The symptoms of megaloblastic anemia may resemble other blood disorders or health problems. Other types of megaloblastic anemia may be associated with type 1 diabetes, thyroid disease, and a family history of the disease. Megaloblastic anemia is usually detected during a physical examination with a routine blood test.
There may be a lack of white blood cells (leukopenia) and platelets (thrombocytopenia) in the blood. This is because iron deficiency can cause a different type of anemia in which red blood cells become smaller instead of larger. Anemia can also be caused by immune system problems or stomach or bowel surgery that damage red blood cells. The most common cause of vitamin B-12 deficiency anemia is a lack of a substance called intrinsic factor, which may be caused by the immune system mistakenly attacking the stomach cells that produce this substance, called intrinsic factor.
Although a healthy body stores B 12 for three to five years in the liver, autoimmune activity, usually undetectable in the intestines for a long period of time, leads to B 12 depletion and subsequent anemia; Pernicious anemia refers to one of the hematological manifestations of chronic autoimmune gastritis, in which the immune system targets the gastric parietal cells or intrinsic factor itself, resulting in decreased absorption of vitamin B 12 . Classical pernicious anemia is caused by the inability of the parietal cells of the stomach to produce enough IF (gastric protein secreted by the parietal cells) to ensure that sufficient vitamin B12 is absorbed from the diet. Vitamin B-12 deficiency can lead to confusion and forgetfulness because vitamin B-12 is essential for normal brain function.