If you feel too tired and sluggish to keep up with your everyday demands, you may lack more than energy. You may have anemia, a condition that deprives blood of the oxygen needed for organs to function properly.
Anemia is defined as a low red blood cell count.
When organs are not receiving enough oxygen, a person feels weak or faint. Strauss says anemia is most common among rapidly growing, poor, minority children in inner cities. Rapidly growing children are more susceptible to anemia because they run out of stored iron quickly as the bone marrow tries to keep up with body growth. Their diets change, and not all eat a proper diet. Blood cannot always be produced fast enough for the needs of these growing bodies.