We seem to have a history of anemia in the women's line.
My grandmother; mother; me; and daughter. For years I was told I was anemic; remember my mother always being told she was anemic. FINIALLY test were run to see what the problem is. We have a heritable blood disorder none as BETA THALASSEMIA. IF YOU ARE A WOMAN IN THE CRAWFORD LINE - PLEASE ASK THE DR. FOR THE TEST NEXT TIME.

SINCE THIS IS SOMETHIMES CALLED THE MEDITERRANEAN ANEMIA; WHERE DID IT COME FROM?

I would like to see if there is any dicussion on this topic.

Thanks,

Jan
janrick@charte.net

my grandmother was a crawford and the ANEMIA is was killed her she had it that bad and you need to keep a check on it but I did not know it was a heritable blood disorder..thank you for letting me know and i will ask for the test

Who Is At Risk for Thalassemia?
This is from the National Heart and Lung Institute Site on the internet. NHLI is associated with the National Institues of heatlth (http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/Thalassemia/Tha...):

Thalassemia is passed from parents to children through their genes.
Thalassemia affects both males and females.
Beta thalassemias affect people of Mediterranean origin or ancestry (Greek, Italian, Middle Eastern) and people of Asian and African descent.
Alpha thalassemias mostly affect people of Southeast Asian, Indian, Chinese, or Filipino origin or ancestry.

Beta Thalassemia

Two genes are involved in making the beta globin part of hemoglobin—one from each parent. Beta thalassemia occurs when one or both of the two genes are variant.

If one gene is affected, a person is a carrier and has mild anemia. This condition is called beta thalassemia trait, or beta thalassemia minor.
If both genes are variant, a person may have moderate anemia (beta thalassemia intermedia, or mild Cooley’s anemia) or severe anemia (beta thalassemia major, or Cooley’s anemia).
Cooley’s anemia, or beta thalassemia major, is a rare condition. A survey in 1993 found 518 Cooley’s anemia patients in the United States. Most of these persons had the severe form of the illness, but there may be more who are not diagnosed.
If two people with beta thalassemia trait (carriers) have a baby, one of three things can happen:

The baby could receive two normal genes (one from each parent) and have normal blood (1 in 4 chance, or 25 percent).
The baby could receive one normal gene from one parent and one variant gene from the other parent and have thalassemia trait (2 in 4 chance, or 50 percent).
The baby could receive two thalassemia genes (one from each parent) and have a moderate to severe form of the disease (1 in 4 chance, or 25 percent).

Vicki Crawford Carroll

SO INTERESTING.
i have sarcadois.a lung disease.said to effect african american, sweedish and irish people of decent.manly women are effected.i have been effected for the last 6 years.
from what i have read of the blood disease, my grandmother was effected all of her life and told only she was a bleeder and anemic.she used to make liver just to have energy.she was born 1903 in tx.was a direct crawford.
would like to know more from anyone effected!also as she grew older, because of the anemia/bleeding her skin began to rip easily.
thank you
teresa

Hi i am not in the crawford family but am suffering from anemia to the extent that my body cannot absorb iron from iron tablets. just wondering if the syptoms for beta thalassemia are the same as the normal anemia?

The inability to absorb synthetic iron is a symptom of the beta thal. not of 'normal' anemia. Beta thal. is not widely known about so it is most often misdiagnosed as anemia. I was diagnosed anemic when I was an infant, went through 25 years of life and 1 pregnancy in which doctors were shoving iron pills down me and my levels just kept getting lower and lower.

The only way we finally found out that is was something different when I had extensive blood work done and the results came back with oddities my doctor sent me to a hemotologist and I mentioned that my father has the beta thal.

The other hard part in regonizing it is that they have linked this disease to greece, italy, etc and the middle east. I have traced my family some distance back and have found no evidence yet of that link. I also do not have the correct look (light brown hair and super-fair skin-my father is a redhead). My doctor told me we could be talking about someone in the family 5+ hundred years ago which makes it nearly impossible to tell.

Yes all my sisters and myself have anemia....my mother had it so bad they would have to put her in the hospital also my sister too. We have often discuss the possibilty of this being an unknown disease in the family. My siter takes the epo shots....my mom would be hooked up to IV FOR SEVRAL PINTS OF IRON.....WHICH IS THE ONLY way her body would absorb it.

Our family members have been told the had anemia and was treated with iron; the only problem is with beta thalassemia you do not absord the iron.