Blood Diseases: A Complete Guide to Types, Symptoms, and Treatments

Blood disorders reach into your life when you need them the least, and drain the energy out of you and even make the easiest things difficult, but when detected early in life, they will change the entire experience. Need a list of blood disorders, types of blood disease, rare blood diseases that are life-threatening or the most common blood diseases? This new source is coming up with the most recent information to help you. To learn more, head over to doctorfolk and explore the full guide with complete details.

What are Blood Diseases?

Blood disorders, also known as blood diseases or hematologic disorders, are conditions arising when there is an issue with the vital constituents of the blood, e.g., red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, or plasma. It may lead to the inability of the blood to deliver oxygen, to resist infection, or to clot, with severe health consequences, bringing both weakness and life-threatening emergencies. The plasma is the liquid component of the blood, which forms over half the blood volume, a mixture of salts and proteins in a liquid state, while the solid components, such as cells, do all the work.

Types of Blood Diseases

The nature of the blood disorders due to the numerous functions of blood is classified according to the affected part. This is where the major types of blood disorders are broken down.

1. Red Blood Cell Disorders: These are the disorders that involve the supply of oxygen in your organism.

• Anemia: This is the most common blood disease. This occurs in the case of excessive red blood cell deficiency or possessing an abnormal hemoglobin. A common type is Iron deficiency anemia.
• Sickle Cell Disease: It is a hereditary blood disorder wherein you have crescent-shaped red blood cells, which cause pain and damage to your body organs.
• Polycythemia Vera: It is a rare blood disorder in which your body produces too much red blood, and thus, your blood is thick.

2. Disorders of White Blood Cells: The disorders involve your immune system.

• Leukemia: This is a disease in which you have a cancer in your bone marrow which produces the wrong type of white blood cells, which overcrowds the normal cells in your body.
• Lymphoma: It is a type of cancer that starts in your lymphatic system, which is within your immune system (has Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin lymphoma).
• Neutropenia: This is caused by a critically low concentration of neutrophils which are used to combat infections.

3. Platelet and Clotting Disorders: These cause the problem of bleeding or clotting.

• Hemophilia: This is a highly uncommon, genetic disorder whereby blood is unable to clot.
• Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP): This is a disease where the immune system fails to discriminate between platelets and destroys them (ITP).
• Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT): This is a very severe blood clot in a deep vein (usually in the leg).

Aplastic Anemia (where the body stops making new blood cells) and some aggressive leukemias or lymphomas are some of the rare blood diseases that can kill you unless identified and treated aggressively.

Blood Diseases Causes

Blood disorders may be caused by a number of factors. In most cases, there is no single reason, but there are a number of factors:

1. Genetics: These are inherited through family members as in sickle cell disease, hemophilia and thalassemia.
2. Nutritional Deficiencies: Iron deficiency, vitamin B12 deficiency or folate deficiency is the most common cause of anemia.
3. Other Diseases: Blood disorders can be caused by other diseases such as kidney disorders, autoimmune disorders (including lupus) and cancers.
4. Infections: There may be some bacterial infections or some viruses (like HIV) that infect the bone marrow.
5. Drugs & treatment: Drugs and chemotherapy may cause a temporary effect on the blood cell production.
6. Environmental Exposure: Exposure to poisonous substances (e.g. benzene) or intense radiation may have an impact on the bone marrow.

The cause, in most of the instances, as is the case in most types of leukemia, may be unknown. 

Blood Diseases Symptoms

The symptoms might not be very clear and may be easily terminated, yet they are the warning signals of your body. Be alert for:

• Unrelieved restlessness, extreme tiredness and weakness.
• Pain in the chest and easy breathlessness.
• Pale or yellow skin.
• Easy bruising and long bleeding time of minor cuts.
• Several and frequent infections or constant fevers.
• Puffy lymph nodes on the neck, armpits or groin.
• Petechiae (red spots) on the skin, which could be the signs of low platelets.
• Pain or bloating at a left upper abdomen (swollen spleen).
• Acute, severe pain (that can signify a sickle cell crisis or a clot in the blood).
• Unplanned weight loss. 

How Do Blood Diseases Affect Our Bodies?

When your blood is sick, all your body feels sick. It is a systemic kind of problem, i.e. it involves multiple parts of the body. 

• Heart & Lungs: Your heart works extra hard when you are anaemic to pump oxygen. This may result in heart failure or enlargement. Your lungs (pulmonary embolism) may as well be visited by blood clots, and this is a medical emergency that may be life-threatening.
• Brain: You do not get sufficient oxygen in your brain. This may cause difficulty in concentration, headaches and light-headedness.
• Immune System: When your white blood cells are not working properly, you expose yourself to germs which may lead to severe infections.
• Healing: Injuries are fatal when your body is unable to heal due to a deficiency in clotting. You also have the natural bleeding of the joints or the organs.
• Daily Energy: When you are unable to deliver oxygen to every cell in your body, it affects all of them. This may bring about severe fatigue.

Treatment of Blood Diseases 

The positive aspect is that modern medical practice has an involvement against virtually every type of blood disorder and many of them are chronic and can be controlled.

1. In the case of Nutritional Deficiencies: Some anemias can be cured by supplements (iron, B12) or by changing the diet.

2. Medications: These can be antibiotics, immunosuppressive drugs and rather complex targeted therapies and chemotherapeutic drugs against cancers.

3. Blood Products: Red cell or platelet transfusion is an urgent process. Hemophilia is treated by using clotting factor concentrates.

4. Blood Thinners (Anticoagulants): This is important in treating and preventing life-threatening clots, e.g. DVT.

5. Bone Marrow/Stem Cell transplant: It is a possible treatment for aggressive cancers, aplastic anemia, and other severe diseases is the replacement of the diseased marrow using healthy cells.

6. Lifestyle Support: Healthy diet, prevention of injuries (in case of bleeding disorders) and termination of smoking are all important elements of the health care. 

When to Seek a Doctor for Blood Diseases 

When you get tired frequently, find unusual bruises or harmful bleeding, do not overlook it. Immediately go to the doctor and take a Complete Blood Count test. It is able to detect blood issues at an early stage.

You should go to the emergency room in case of chest pain, dyspnoea, weakness (which might be an indication of a stroke), or excessive bleeding due to small injuries. This is particularly when you may get blood clots.

Book an appointment with a hematologist in case of swollen lymph nodes that are lasting, bone pain, recurrent infections, extremely pale skin, or a family history of blood disorders such as leukemia which is a rare blood disease that can kill you.

In children, in case they grow slowly or remain sleepy most of the time, they should be tested immediately. Problems do not develop into an emergency once they are treated at an early stage.