Bad Blood Test?

My husband had a blood test recently because of a general feeling of declining fitness, shortness of breath and lack of stamina. It showed low hematocrit and hemoglobin levels. Besides taking an iron supplement what should he do?

Hematocrit and hemoglobin are two measurements obtained in a complete blood count, a lab test done on a blood sample. Hematocrit tells you the proportion of blood made up of red blood cells. This level drops if the body’s production of red blood cells declines, or if they are being lost from the bloodstream. The most common cause is bleeding somewhere in the body, but low hematocrit can also stem from vitamin or mineral deficiencies, cirrhosis of the liver and, possibly, malignancies. Hematocrit can be abnormally low in people who are malnourished, have a chronic illness or an inherited blood disorder.

Hemoglobin is the oxygen-carrying red protein of blood. Low hemoglobin levels also most commonly reflect blood loss from chronic bleeding, but like hematocrit, may also indicate that the body has reduced its production of red blood cells. Read more...