anemia markers without anemia symptoms

[gavriel]

hi all

am new to in here.

i just got some of my blood test results and it got me abit scared, i thought to share them with you, maybe you could share some light on it from your own experience.

 

here is a link for the results, hence the forum's website does not allow me to uploaded in here.

 

http://postimg.org/image/eyjsn2bhn/

 

BMI 18.8

 

the signs of the re blood count, hemoglobin etc' shows anemia, on the other side, on the subjective aspect i feel great. i have no anemia symptoms, no dizziness, weakness, tiredness etc...

i will add that my diet is vegan, very healthy diet, i dont cut my calories, on the other side i dont bring empty ones, or too many calories inside.

 

do someone else also have\had this indicators of anemia without actually having anemia's symptoms? is it a consequence of a healthy diet and lifestyle?

 

about choloesterol, is there to low cholesterol? is this numbers are somewhere near?

 

thank you for the help :)

[Michael R]

Hi Gavriel,

 

First, the links you give just give a login page in Hebrew; if they're important, please find some way to insert the actual content, or provide a way to bypass the login page.

 

Second, we can't really do anything with your numbers without the units (eg. mmol/L or mg/dL) and lab reference ranges — please provide.

[gavriel]

thank you michael. i re-done the link for your convenient.

 

can someone please comment on that?

[Dean Pomerleau]

Gavriel,

 

Since Michael hasn't gotten back to you yet, I'll give it a shot. He's more knowledgeable than I am, but also much busier ☺. 

 

Your cholesterol number are extraordinarily low. Your total cholesterol (88 mg/dl) is about the lowest I've ever seen. But given your vegan, mildly calorie restricted diet, I don't think even a number that low should be a problem. Your fasting glucose looks great, and most of your other markers are nicely within normal range, except for some blood cell markers. 

 

Your WBC is right at the bottom of the reference range, which is right where you want it.

 

Your RBC, Hematocrit and Platelets are all below the reference range, but not dramatically so. Your MCHC and MPV are near the top of the reference range. Your hemoglobin is right at the bottom of the reference range. All of these, with the possible exception of low platelets, are markers I've experienced for most of the 16 years I've been practicing CR. They are pretty much par for the course when it comes to CR, as far as I've observed in myself and others. Here is my blood work history in case you are interest in make a comparison, and here is a post where I dissect my most recent blood test numbers, including the blood cell counts you are concerned about. We also have a whole thread where we talk about extreme blood test results while practicing CR. BTW, within that thread is this great post by Rodney explaining the relationship between MCH, MCHC, MCV and RBC. It really helped clarify things for me a lot.

 

There are times when you should ignore out-of-range blood tests, but yours don't look that unusual. If (as you suggest in the title of the post), you aren't experiencing anemia (which I wouldn't expect with your quite reasonable hemoglobin level), I'd simply keep an eye on it, and how you feel. Watch for getting out of breath easily, lethargy of that "heavy legs" feeling climbing stairs.

 

A couple other thing I'd suggest testing next time if you can, and can afford it (or get insurance to pay for it):

• Ferritin - That will help you monitor your iron stores which I find to be a much better indicator of impeding anemia than hemoglobin
• IGF-1 - One of the most important markers of an "anabolic" state, and something CR tends to keep quite low - some people say too low...
• Insulin - Another important marker of a growth-oriented metabolic state. With your diet and low fasting glucose, I'd expect you'd have fasting insulin as well, which would be a good thing, and a marker of successful CR as far as we know it...
• C-Reactive Protein (hsCRP) - One of the best (and easiest to get) markers of overall inflammation. I expect yours would be quite low, but it's good to verify.

On other thing, in the thread where you introduced yourself, you said after running your extremely healthy-sounding diet through CRON-O-Meter it appeared that you were only eating 700kcal/day! If you aren't dropping weight like a stone, that can't be right. Did you recheck the numbers?

 

Hope this helps! Feel free to post follow-up questions here or on that other thread you started if you're still looking for advise. Either I, Michael or someone else will be happy to help. And thanks for sharing your blood work - it is quite impressive despite not you not having intentionally practicing CR per se up until now!

 

--Dean

[gavriel]

Dean! thank you very much for the time, effort, thought, attention and knowledge you put in yout message! its extraordinary :)

 

i asked the doctor to give me the other tests, also to check vitamin D , she said she can not give them to me, that they are checked only to people with specific reasons, desease etc'.

 

i would say that now i am mainly eaten very healthy vegan, not CR, i modified my diet to have alot  more veggies , greens, and more fruits so automatically i eat less of the whole grains and legumes...  and i am more moderate with my nuts. so maybe i dont intake too many calories altogether... i think that with that i am eating alot of food, as weight,but swill, i am loosing my body weight very slowly and moderately. meanwhile that i am still acostuming to my new diet and the body still looses some weight i am not going on intentional CR.

 

i feel it may be quite a mess for me working with the CRON METER hence in every meal i have many ingredients, it gets to complex for me :)

 

thank you for the review on the test results of mine...

is there such a thing as to low cholesterol?

 

the only thing i find is that dealing with food takes me much more time then in the past. currently its ok, i have the time, especially dealing with all the veggies. but i am trying to optimize it somehow.

 

thanks again :)