Cyprus-Forum.com

[carpetburn]

hello. first post so please be gentle.

i'm a brit who carries the inherited blood condition thalessemia b minor. i read on the internet that 16% of the population of cyprus are carriers of this.

it's never bothered my life at all, except it's really hard to maintain or improve my level of fitness. i could run a 10k but it would take a hell of a lot more training than a regular person and i lose my fitness quickly if i don't maintain my running. anyway i've been doing some sessions with a personal trainer and whenever she makes me do series of heavy weights i go all faint and my heartrate drops like a stone down to like 50 or something. it's a bit scary. i wondered if it was related to the blood thing (small blood cells that don't carry much oxygen). the trainer is freaked out because she sees i can do stuff at my own pace and i can run for fun but i can't keep up with her weights programme as fast as a normal unfit brit.

do any ofyou guys have this thal.b.minor thing and have you ever had symptoms related to it? does it affect your life at all?

thanks!

[Sotos]

I don't have this condition but my advice to you is not to trust your trainer... or any online advice about this and ask your doctor instead. Since in the UK this condition is not very common I doubt your trainer has any clue about it. A doctor should be able to tell you how much exercise you need and how much exercise is too much. And one last thing: Just because you have this condition it doesn't mean you don't have anything else. The problem might not be due to thalessemia but due to another problem you don't yet know about. Best thing is to ask your doctor just to be certain!

[Bananiot]

Good advice from sotos, I must say. Being a carrier means that some of your red blood cells are deformed and therefore do not carry much haemoglobin. During strenouous exercise this might come up as a problem. You should be on the look out in case your partner is also a carrier and you decide to have children.

[carpetburn]

thanks for your input.

yeah the trainer doesn't have a clue, and nor should she or should i expect her to. my experience of uk doctors is pretty disappointing too. i found out i had it years ago and they didn't know what to do about it other than that in all other ways i was healthy. my mother was diagnosed years ago and ended up going through a couple of years of iron injections because they couldn't work out what it was or what to do with it.

i feel like i should go back to the doctor and find out some more 10 years later but the thought of fruitless visits to clueless uk gps culminating in a specialist appointment where i'll just find out i've got it again and they don't know much about it.

i'm really just looking for some anecdotal stories from people who carry it on how it affects their life as i've never met anyone else with it over here.

thanks and hoping for some more input from anybody.

[CBBB]

Have a look here http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/thalassemia/DS00905.

Another thing to do would be to find a Cypriot Doctor near you, there is bound to be one.

One advantage of having this is that should you ever catch Malaria, you would only have a very mild reaction.

[SKI-preo]

I have Thalessemia B Minor and I was a distance runner & rugby player when I was a kid. I don't think thalessemia is your problem. Maybe its just that you're a Pom.

[Bananiot]

Not everyone is affected in the same way Ski, in your case it affected more your brain, perhaps.

[SKI-preo]

Bananiot, your wife,mother and sisters don't complain.

[bill cobbett]

By way of getting away from the personal insults and back to the matter of the thread...

Isn't it the case that CY has had a very active screening and counselling programme running for many years, which discourages marriage between two carriers... and which has led to a very significant reduction in thalassemia???

[Bananiot]

No bill, nobody does or has the right to discourage marriages between carriers. Simply, if the would be parents are carriers, screening is mandatorily performed and the couple is presented with options. It's their decision what to do with the pregnancy. I think, since the 90's only one sufferer was born and this shows that cpuples opt for termination of the pregnancy and having another go. The odds are in the couple's favour.