This document summarizes several blood diseases including anemia, sickle cell anemia, blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma, and hemophilia. It explains that anemia is caused by a lack of iron leading to insufficient hemoglobin, sickle cell anemia causes misshapen red blood cells that can get stuck in vessels, blood cancers involve abnormal blood cell production, and hemophilia is a genetic disease that prevents normal blood clotting. The document provides information on symptoms, causes, and treatments for these various blood disorders.

1. Blood Diseases

3. What do these foods have in
common?

4. • Red meat, legumes, and spinach are all
good sources of iron.
• Getting enough iron in your diet is
important to prevent anemia.
• Anemia is a blood disease that causes
you to feel weak and tired.
• Although anemia is caused by a nutrient
deficiency, other blood diseases are
genetic diseases, or forms of cancer.

5. Blood Diseases
• Problems can occur with red blood cells,
white blood cells, platelets, and other parts of
the blood.
• Many blood disorders are genetic, meaning
they are inherited from a parent.
• Some blood diseases are caused by not
getting enough of a certain nutrient, while
others are cancers of the blood.

7. Anemia

9. • Anemia is a disease that occurs when there is not
enough hemoglobin in the blood to carry oxygen to
body cells.
• Hemoglobin is the blood protein that normally
carries oxygen from the lungs to the tissues.
• Anemia leads to a lack of oxygen in organs.
• Anemia is usually caused by one of the following:
• • A loss of blood from a bleeding wound or a slow
leak of blood.
• • The destruction of red blood cells.
• • A lack of red blood cell production.

10. • Anemia may not have any symptoms.
• Some people with anemia feel weak or tired in
general or during exercise.
• They also may have poor concentration. People
with more severe anemia often get short of breath
during times of activity.
• Iron-deficiency anemia is the most common type of
anemia.
• It occurs when the body does not receive enough
iron.
• Since there is not enough iron, hemoglobin, which
needs iron to bind oxygen, cannot be made.

11. • In the United States, 20% of all women of
childbearing age have iron-deficiency anemia,
compared with only 2% of adult men.
• The most common cause of iron-deficiency
anemia in young women is blood lost during
menstruation.
• Iron deficiency anemia can be avoided by
getting the recommended amount of iron in
one’s diet.
• Anemia is often treated or prevented by
taking iron supplements.

12. • Boys and girls between the ages of 9 and 13 should
get 9 mg of iron every day.
• Girls between the ages of 14 and 18 should get 15
mg of iron every day.
• Boys between the ages of 14 and 18 should get 11
mg of iron every day.
• Pregnant women need the most iron—27 mg daily.
Good sources of iron include shellfish, such as clams
and oysters.
• Red meats, such as beef, are also a good source of
iron.
• Non-animal sources of iron include seeds, nuts, and
legumes.

13. • Breakfast cereals often have iron added
to them in a process called fortification.
• Some good sources of iron are listed
below.
• Eating vitamin C along with iron-
containing food increases the amount of
iron that the body can absorb.

14. Sources of Iron

15. Sickle-Cell Anemia
• Sickle-cell anemia is a blood disease that is caused by
an abnormally-shaped hemoglobin protein in red blood
cells.
• Many of the red blood cells of a person with sickle-cell
anemia are long and curved (sickle-shaped)
• The long, sickle-shape of the cells can cause them to
get stuck in narrow blood vessels.
• This clotting means that oxygen cannot reach the cells.
• People with sickle-cell anemia are most often well but
can occasionally have painful attacks.
• The disease is not curable, but it can be treated with
medicines.

16. The red blood cells of a person with sickle-cell anemia (left) are long and
pointed, rather than straight, like normal cells (right). The abnormal cells
cannot carry oxygen properly and can get stuck in capillaries.

17. Blood Cancer
• Leukemia is a cancer of the blood or bone
marrow.
• It is characterized by an abnormal production
of blood cells, usually white blood cells.
• Lymphoma is a cancer of a type of white
blood cell called lymphocytes.
• There are many types of lymphoma.

19. Hemophilia
• Hemophilia is the name of a group of hereditary
diseases that affect the body’s ability to control
blood clotting.
• Hemophilia is caused by a lack of clotting factors in
the blood.
• Since people with hemophilia cannot produce
clots, any cut can put a person at risk of bleeding to
death.
• The risk of internal bleeding is also increased in
hemophilia, especially into muscles and joints.