Hi Catherine,
I'm sure there are many more reasons since anemia is a symptom of some other disease process or imbalance.
I think I missed the toxic exposure of chemicals and radiation, both low and high levels of exposure.
Yesterday I was listening to a book review on plastics and was reminded about the phthalates, specifically DEHP, and how they disrupt the endocrine system and can cause cancer. But the most disturbing was to hear about the use of plastics containing these chemicals in medical devices. Apparently, IV tubing and the bags blood is stored in are effected. DEHP leaches out of the plastic and into the blood product. It makes me sick to think of all the blood products John got over two year were basically contaminated with DEHP. So I wanted to find out the timeline on the discovery of this and to see if anything has changed. It appears they've know about this for quite some time and the FDA suggests hospital switch over to safer plastics. Is it happening? On some level it is but it's not mandatory. Here we are fighting to regain our health, only to get exposed to hidden toxins.
So who's at the highest risk of adverse effect to DEHP....infants, pre-pubescent boys, premature infants in the neo-natal units, and anyone needing multiple transfusions or the very ill.
Here are some links I came across in case you are interested in reading about this. What I haven't come across yet is whether or not they've changed the types of plastic for blood storage. I would like to think some action has been taken since many of the reports are from 2006 and earlier. Unfortunately, John's major exposure was in 2002 - 2004. BTW, he stopped producing testosterone during that time and had to go on hormone replacement therapy eventually.
http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Sa.../ucm062182.htm
http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/D...C-Toxicity.htm
http://www.noharm.org/us_canada/issu...vc_phthalates/
If anyone has current knowledge of this, please share.
Marlene