Blood Work

I came to the college today to find some distressing news. One of the girls in the hostel had to go to the hospital the night before. Apparently she had fainted and was unable to be revived. It was discovered that she was suffering from anemia that was aggravated by the onset of her menstrual cycle. That’s bad enough, but when I learned about it from Principal Ramdev, he told me that this was a rather common symptom among Indian women.

Anemia is when you either do not have enough red blood cells in your blood or your hemoglobin decreases. Hemoglobin is a protein that binds to oxygen and is a necessary component in tissue oxygenation. I’m oversimplifying it, but basically, anemia is when your blood fails to deliver the necessary oxygen to your body.

One of the causes of anemia, and the likely culprit in this case (and the case of most Indian women) is decreased iron. Iron is an important part of the hemoglobin protein, and without iron, your red blood cells cannot carry oxygen. The problem for the culture here is that the best source of iron is meat and eggs, but so many people here are vegetarians. Even the ones that do eat meat consume it only about 2-3 times per week. It does come from other sources, such as dark green vegetables like spinach and whole-wheat products, but in much smaller amounts. It is also non-heme iron, which means that is not as readily absorbed and used by the body.

Iron supplements are not a solution. For one, any iron supplement is non-heme. Secondly, the human body cannot absorb large amounts of iron all at once; it needs to be taken throughout the day. Finally, too much iron is deadly.

As I may have mentioned before, this is a diet that has existed for the past 5,000 years, so it works on some level. Unfortunately, the introduction of a Western diet, as well as industrialization of foods, has been known to strip down the nutrition of raw ingredients and cause problems for developing societies. Plus, I know that I have stated before that I am not a registered dietician and I cannot make serious health recommendations to anybody here. I just feel bad to hear Principal Ramdev casually tell me about a serious nutritional deficiency that is common in over 90% of the women here. Maybe it’s my arrogant Western attitude, but I want to help. I just don’t know how it would be practical. Hopefully, the doctors and other health professionals here are trying to work it out.

UPDATE: I apologize for the poor wording when I first wrote (that they were unable to revive her). The girl is fine now, she didn't die.