The Anaemia of Chronic Inflammation

Herbal Interventions for Brain Fog & Fatigue

Nettles are just one of the many botanical medicines that are helpful for iron deficiency. However, as folks with anaemia know, simply upping iron intake isn’t always guaranteed to reduce symptoms. Herbal interventions which help to manage stress, heal the microbiome, and most importantly of all, calm inflammation, are also crucial considerations.

Having anaemia isn’t very nice. This quote from a client perfectly illustrates how it feels;

“In an effort to feel better I went out for a walk. About half way into town I realised I’d gone too far beyond my bandwidth and had no power left in my battery. I was so grateful to have pockets in my skirt, because even the effort of swinging my arms felt like too much. It’s like when you play a video game and your health bar is right down at the bottom. I knew there was no way I could make it back home, so I sat down on a bench and thought about what to do. I was so depleted, I couldn’t think straight - so I rang my husband to come and pick me up.”

The word anaemia means “not enough blood.” The condition can be triggered by many things; from nutritional deficiencies, to smoking (carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke binds to the haemoglobin in red blood cells and displaces oxygen.) In anaemia, the delivery of essential nutrients (like iron or oxygen) is impaired. This causes a maelstrom of horrid symptoms; the most common of which is feelings of extreme fatigue.¹

Post Covid I’ve seen a rise in the number people enquiring about help for anaemia. My personal theory about this is that exposure to the virus potentially leads to a compromised gut microbiome, and hence, an impaired ability to derive vital vitamins and minerals (including iron) from food. After all, the gut is where a large portion of our immune system is housed, and nutrients from food are the building blocks for energy. (Perhaps this is the reason why people who were overweight were deemed to be more at risk during the pandemic?) As we’ll see, chronic also inflammation plays an important role. Add stress into the equation (which also costs a great deal of energy,) and we’re looking at a widespread health crisis.

Of course this is something of an oversimplification.

There are several different types of anaemia, and even more varying factors as to why a person might go on to develop it.

I need to make clear that the protocols discussed here are not applicable in cases where anaemia is caused by a loss of blood. Occult (or hidden) bleeding is a very serious matter indeed which needs to be properly investigated and dealt with by medical professionals. This is not a matter to be tackled by the home herbalist.

The strategies discussed in the following post are focused around what I recently learned is termed “The Anaemia of Chronic Inflammation,” for which, there are several practical, and very helpful things you can do.