Anemia is a condition in which your red blood cell count is low and your tissues and organs don’t get enough oxygen. It is a vitamin B12 deficiency which causes the body to produce abnormally large red blood cells. Due to their size, they are unable to function properly leading to anemia and other health issues. To prevent health problems due to pernicious anemia, it is important to know its signs and causes.

What is pernicious anemia?
Pernicious anemia is a disorder that prevents your body from absorbing vitamin B12. According to the xPharm: The Comprehensive Pharmacology Reference, 2007 Journal, it is caused due to the autoimmune destruction of intrinsic factor, a substance essential for the gastrointestinal absorption of cobalamin (vitamin B12). It is a type of megaloblastic anemia that not just causes the red blood cells to enlarge but also doesn’t let them develop ultimately. In this condition, instead of being round, the red blood cells are oval and sometimes die earlier than their four-month life expectancy. As verified by the Annals of Medicine and Surgery, it is a rare condition that affects around 0.1 percent of the general population.

Symptoms of pernicious anemia
The signs and symptoms of pernicious anemia usually go unnoticed in the beginning. This is because they may be mild and are often confused with a sense of not keeping well. Some examples of its symptoms include:

• Loss of appetite
• Bleeding gums or swollen and red tongue
• Ulcers in the mouth
• Pale skin and eyes
• Palpitations
• Breathlessness
• Inability to balance oneself
• Confusion, slow reflexes, and difficulty in concentration
• Nausea or vomiting
• Dizziness, especially while standing up

While these are the signs that present themselves when pernicious anemia is just starting, here are some symptoms that occur when the condition advances:

• Numbness or the feeling of pins and needles in the feet, hands, and legs
• Depression
• Short-term memory loss
• Dementia
• Hallucinations or delusions
• Irritability
• Optic nerve atrophy
• Weakness in the muscles
• Constipation

Causes of pernicious anemia
Pernicious anemia is caused due to issues with your immune system and the resultant production of antibodies that attack the intrinsic factor-producing cells. This compromises your body’s ability to make enough red blood cells. This autoimmune condition may either reduce or completely stall the production of red blood cells. This also means that despite consuming enough sources of vitamin B12, your body cannot produce enough of vitamin B12.

Here are some other reasons that increase one’s risk of pernicious anemia:
When a person has existing autoimmune endocrine diseases. Some examples are Graves’ disease, type-1 diabetes, Addison’s disease, and hyperparathyroidism. Some diseases, such as hypothyroidism, myasthenia gravis, vitiligo, etc., may also increase the chance of vitamin B12 deficiency. People of Scandinavian or Northern European descent are at a higher risk of pernicious anemia. At times pernicious anemia is also caused due to conditions such as atrophic gastritis that affects your stomach or gastrointestinal lining. Undergoing a gastrectomy increases your chances of getting vitamin B12 deficiency. Moreover, intestinal issues such as Crohn’s disease leads to inflammation of the lining of the digestive system. This prevents your body from absorbing the requisite amounts of vitamin B12.
Furthermore, age is also a contributing factor where people above sixty are more likely to getting this condition. Long-term dependence on specific treatment options may lead to low vitamin B12. Some of the most common ones include proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) used to treat indigestion and excessive production of stomach acids. Lastly, in some cases, pernicious anemia is passed down in families.

Prevention techniques
When left untreated, pernicious anemia may lead to some severe complications. These include gastric polyps, heart problems, and back, upper forearm, and upper leg fractures. It may also lead to irreparable damage to your nervous system.
While preventing pernicious anemia is not possible, the risk of these complications can be significantly reduced. To diagnose pernicious anemia, your doctor may conduct one or all tests, such as a complete blood count (CBC) to assess your hemoglobin levels, vitamin B12 levels to check for deficiency, an antibody test to check for intrinsic factor and parietal cell antibodies.
Therefore, if you are diagnosed with this condition, you will be prescribed its treatment. The goal of this is to increase your vitamin B12 level and is usually done through depending on the severity of the condition, you may be advised to take intramuscular vitamin B12 injections, either daily or weekly. Once B12 levels are normalized, you may be prescribed oral doses of the same.

Conclusion
With the right line of treatment, it is possible to prevent the serious health risks associated with pernicious anemia. Since this is a high-risk disease, you should see your general physician immediately if you notice any signs and symptoms of this condition.