My blood test.......

Question

My blood test just came back. The dr said my iron was low, but I am looking at it and it also says hemoglobin, and hematocrit are low and RDW is high? What does that mean?

The actual numbers are

hemoglobin 11.5

hematocrit 33.6

RDW 17.4

Answer 1

hemoglobin is the oxygen carrying part of the blood (low iron could cause low hemoglobin)  hematocrit is the serum part of the blood that is not made of red blood cells.  The easiest way for your dr to explain the low H&H and how to adjust it, is to tell you your iron is low.

Answer 2

hemoglobin is the actual element that carried the iron and the iron is necessary to carry oxygen on the hemoglobin

hematocrit is the number of red blood cells in your blood, and because your hemoglobin is "attached" to your red bloods cells, if your hematocrit is low your hemoglobin will also be low

RDW is your redcell distribution width and I am pretty sure that it measures the size of the cells.

you can help the first 2 numbers by eating food that are high in iron like red meat, eggs, some nuts like almonds, spinach ... and don't drink a lot of milk or take antiacids because it inhibits absorption or iron into your body. if you are eating foods with iron you can drink orange juice to help absorption.

drs. don't usually worry about hemoglobin unless it is below 11...but flinstones vitamins have a good source of iron that is not too much

Answer 3

the hemoglobin actually doesn't look too bad.. I had that reading a couple months ago too. But buy some iron pills.