Pernicious Anemia is when the body can't make enough healthy read blood cells because it is not getting enough Vitamin B12 from food. This is because the body lacks the intrinsic factor which is a protein made inside the stomach that digests Vitamin B12.
Essentially Pernicious Anemia is a decrease in red blood cells that happens when your intestines can't absorb Vitamin B12.
You may not know you have this deficiency and it can only be detected by a blood test for your B12 levels. But once you know about it, taking B12 tablets probably won't do any good.
When you get to the point where you are so deficient in Vitamin B12 that it has progressed to Pernicious Anemia, the only recourse is B12 injections to bring up the level of the vitamin to where you do not bruise at the slightest bump and your tiredness begins to abate.
When pernicious anemia is permitted to go untreated or when it does not respond to treatment, pernicious anemia can damage your heart, brain, and other organs causing nerve damage that looks like "peripheral neuropathy" that you would see with neurological and autoimmune diseases but it is really because of being deficient in Vitamin B12. It can also cause memory loss and digestive tract problems - from swallowing to choking to elimination problems. The body's stomach acid plays a large role in the body's absorption of Vitamin B12.
Pernicious Anemia is classified as an Autoimmune Disease and like other AI's, it requires life-long treatment to keep it under control. There is no cure for Pernicious Anemia, but Vitamin B12 injections do help to keep the deficiency from getting worse. You may still have all the other symptoms that go with autoimmune diseases, peripheral neuropathy being the uppermost symptom category.
When you don't have enough Vitamin B12, your red blood cells become too large, as if they swelled up. This also causes trouble with delivering oxygen to your body because your body needs red blood cells as the vehicle to deliver oxygen. This will cause you to feel tired and weak at times.
The word "Pernicious" means deadly or fatal. In years gone by, Pernicious Anemia was deadly because Vitamin B12 was not available to people over the counter. Elixirs they purchased from traveling medicine shows often bragged Vitamin B12 as an ingredient but the amount was miniscule. The tonics were primarily alcohol and laudanum (opium) which caused people to sleep so whatever ailed them before they took the tonic, made them awaken refreshed and feeling better.
Modern medicine has targeted ethnic groups where Pernicious Anemia is most common - Northern European and African descent. Senior citizens of any ethnic group are also at risk because of a decrease in stomach acid as people age. Other senior citizens have the propensity for using products that reduce acid and control reflux. This has been directly related to a cause of Pernicious Anemia and the solution is to cut stomach acid naturally as opposed to using over the counter or prescription medications to control acid in the body.
Also at risk:
- people who live at or below the poverty level whose diet is poor at best
- people who already have one autoimmune disease such as Type 1 Diabetes, Graves Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Addison's Disease, Lupus, Fibromyalgia .
- people who have had gastric bypass or part of their small intestine removed surgically. B12 is absorbed in small intestine.
- people who have Crohn's Disease, Leaky Gut Disorder, HIV, and diseases of the digestion system
- people who take seizure medications
- people who take antibiotics as DMARDS (daily antibiotics to keep another disease in check). Antibiotics prevents the body from absorbing Vitamin B12.
- people who have had alot of surgical procedures.
- People who take a lot of medications per day.
- people who are vegetarians who also don't eat dairy products or take vitamin supplements
- people who eat mostly fast food diets
- people who have very poor diets
There are two types of Pernicious Anemia -- Macrocystic Anemia ( folic acid deficiency) and Megaloblastic Anemia (which means Anemia where the red blood cells are larger than normal.)
Vitamin B12 is also called Cobalamin Deficiency and Combined Systems Disease.
Pernicious Anemia is not the same as Hemolytic Anemia. They are two different diseases. Hemolytic Anemia is where blood cells are destroyed and removed from bloodstream. With Pernicious Anemia you still have red blood cells.
I hope this have given you an idea of how important Vitamin B12 is to your daily diet. Get your blood tested so your doctor has a baseline to start with, then get tested every six months to a year to make sure you don't become deficient, especially if you fall within one of the risk categories.