Anemia generally occurs when the blood cell count of your body is reduced significantly. It can be caused due to chronic diseases or rapid blood loss. The blood disorder is also known to be quite common in the country, as more than two million people are suffering from it.

Therefore, to avoid getting affected by the various types of anemia, you would have to know its symptoms and diagnosis. Here is what you should know about the types of anemia.

Symptoms of anemia
Like many health disorders, anemia does not usually exhibit any signs in its early stages. As the issue progresses, however, the symptoms may start occurring. Some of the symptoms are:

• Pale skin
  Palen skin is known to be one of the most common symptoms of all the main types of anemia. It generally occurs when your body has lost a lot of blood.
• Headache
  If you have lost blood rapidly, then you may experience severe headaches. This happens when your brain fails to get the required amount of oxygen through your blood.
• Breathing problems
  The RBCs generally help your body carry oxygen from one organ to another. However, with anemia, the amount of red blood cells is reduced. As a result, your heart does not get enough oxygen, which leads to shortness of breath.
• Fatigue
  Almost all the main types of anemia cause fatigue. This is because the vital organs in your body do not get enough oxygen to function properly.

If your body has suffered from severe blood loss due to chronic health problems, then you can also experience numerous other symptoms, such as dizziness and an irregular heartbeat.

How anemia is diagnosed
Before starting with your tests, your doctor would first ask you about your family and medical history. Once that is done, they may ask you to do the following tests:

• CBC
  Complete Blood Count (CBC) is one of the most common procedures that doctors use to diagnose the main types of anemia. With this test, your doctor would measure the hemoglobin level in your blood. If the amount of hemoglobin is lower than 12 grams, then they would consider you to be anemic.
• Vitamin tests
  To determine the type of anemia, your doctor would also ask you to do a vitamin test.
• Test for iron levels in blood
  If your body does not have enough iron, then an iron-deficiency anemia could be the problem. Therefore, to confirm which anemia you are suffering from, your doctor will suggest you to go for this test.
• Osmotic Fragility Test
  This type of diagnostic procedure helps the doctor determine if your RBCs are more fragile than usual.
• Hemoglobin Electrophoresis
  Your doctor might also ask you to do a hemoglobin electrophoresis test to evaluate hemoglobin issues.

So, these are some of the most common tests that your doctor might ask you to take if you are anemic.