A running friend of mine was recently diagnosed with this condition - it is a genetic form of anemia, and it is interfering with his training and racing. This is what he told me: “the doctors are thinking that is the cause to my huge swings in races. Why I run a super race one time out and the next run like complete shit. If you look back at all my racing history it’s the same. Anyways, tests are being taken and new research on the subject being looked at. As they pointed out to me, not to many elite distance runners have this. The main thing is diet. I believe this whole thing will be solved when they figure out what foods I should and should not eat.”
Can anyone help shed some light on this? Does anyone else have this condition, and have you figured out how to deal with it? He’d appreciate any input. (and I’m curious too…)
Thalassemia Minor or Thalassemia Trait. In this condition, the lack of beta protein is not great enough to cause problems in the normal functioning of the hemoglobin. A person with this condition simply carries the genetic trait for thalassemia and will usually experience no health problems other than a possible mild anemia. As in mild alpha thalassemia, physicians often mistake the small red blood cells of the person with beta thalassemia minor as a sign of iron-deficiency anemia and incorrectly prescribe iron supplements.
The unfortunate truth is there’s not a whole lot you can do about this - you can swing it a few percentage points in your favor, but never really correct for it. The biggest dietary measures you can utilize are to up your protein intake, and be wary of excess iron. I know, counterintuitive on that last point, as most anemias use iron supplements as a primary therapeutic. However, individuals with thalassemia have lower thresholds of toxicity, so iron is bad.
Also, is your friend completely sure it’s thalassemia? The reason I know about it is that for years I thought I had it - that’s what the docs all said. Turns out it was misdiagnosed dilutional pseudoanemia. If your friend is capable of super races, even just occasionally, it raises a warning flag to me that the diagnosis could be off.
I am afflicted with this trait and have yet to be able to find a good medical reason to blame a poor effort on it’s effects. (And I have plenty of poor efforts that need excuses) If your friend indeed has the Beta form then he need not worry as it will not be a significant factor in performance from what my doctors have told me. What they did say is that it will, as stated above, present a slight anemic condition (my Hemoglobin runs on the low side, despite Iron supplementation). Also your body has a little less of a buffer to handle other anemia causing maladies, so they need to monitored closely if you have or get them.
Oh yeah, one other benefit of this being genetic is his children have a 50% chance of getting it as well, we’re batting right on in my family (son has it, daughter does not).
He’s sure it’s Thalassemia minor.
How does upping one’s protein intake help?
Greater protein availability → greater ability to synthesize hemoglobin & expand vasculature. Like I said, not worth more than a few percentage points, but not worth nothing either.
I thought I’d update this with what my friend’s doctors told him… you said you have the same condition, maybe this info is of some use to you as well.
-No added sugar, whatsoever.
-Honey is okay.
-mega dose of folic acid
I don’t know how any of those things would help with iron absorption, but the other day when I asked “so how is life unsugared?” he said “it sucks but I’ve got more energy.”
Thanks for putting info up. I have not checked back in a while and just saw your earlier posts and this one. Ironically I just got done reading the "suger added to everything" thread. I have never been given any nutritional info in relation to thalassemia other than eat food high in iron. The thought of having to cut out added sugar for me, well that is just crazy talk. I do like honey on my oatmeal after a long run or bike.
Funny story, yesterday I was lap swimming while my son had his swimming lesson in the next lane. 20 minutes into my workout and 30 minutes before his lesson is over the lifeguard asks me to leave because he needs to go on lunch break before the next lap pool session. So i get out and towel off and sit down to watch the rest of the swimming lesson and also watch the lifegurad go sit in an adjoining pool area and eat about six candy bars for his “lunch”.
You’re welcome. I just reread what he told us the other day (I copy/pasted it below for you) and apparently more salt is good, too. Do you notice that your performance will vary for no apparent reason (well, the reason would be the anemia) He ran a 15k race in Florida a few weekends ago that was slower than his marathon pace; not that he wasn’t trying, but that his body just wouldn’t let him run that speed.
This is what he me the other day:
*So I got a tin of cookies from my mom last week. It was a 8 inch tin and there were 3 huge cookies that just fit into it. Then I got a bag of cookies from L. a day after that. This was last week. Today the mail comes and first I get another package from my mom with a huge 12 inch tin with one huge cookie in it. 10 minutes later the mailman comes back and hands me another package, this time from C. and what’s in it, a huge bag of cookies. G. sends me two loafs of banana bread all the time. * Thanks so much. I love cookies and now I have enough to last me a while.
*I got some new nutrition stuff today from my doctor for my blood disorder and I must say everything on the list it says I should be eating I’m not and everything on the list I shouldn’t be I am. * No more sugar for me. Allowed honey, but nothing refined, although it says if I’m going to eat choc. to eat Dark.
** I’m suppossed to add more salt to my diet. Lots of electrolytes in my drinks, but no sugar, so no gatorade. Coconut milk it says. Yummy, wonder how many marathoners have tried that in the race. Lots of red meat, which I love and simply don’t eat too often since we don’t eat red meat at ZAP often(not sure why) Worst thing is I’ll have to switch from my coco puffs for breakfast to some low sugar, lots of fiber cereal and soy milk, BLAH.
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*The list goes on and other than the dark choc., salt and red meat, everything else on the list sounds pretty bad, although I am interested in trying the baby coconut milk on the run. * Interesting, because my older brother mentioned a lot of red meat made him feel better and he eats that stuff 4-5 days a week.
** So I’m really going to enjoy all the cookies I got, but I guess I don’t get anymore after that. I’m going to loose so much weight when I cut my sugar intake. Oh, and those jelly beans I just got, geeze. ANd all these years people told me I could eat whatever I wanted when I ran as much as I did and that the reason I had such bad races was because it was in my head and I was mentally weak. Blah, truth is out now. I’m an up and down headstrong freak who isn’t allowed his sugar, haha.
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Apparently part of Thalassemia Minor is that red blood cells are much smaller, and that interferes with their iron-carrying capacity.
Anyway, I hope that can help you some too. It’s entirely frustrating when medical stuff screws with your training and racing.
I know this is an old thread— but----
Please check out: thalpal.com ----that has a lot of great info.
It’s not true that the Thalassemia trait is asymptomatic! It’s been proven in scientific studies that carriers do have symptoms. The blood just doesn’t have the capacity to carry that much oxygen compared to non-carriers.
While there have been some famous athletes (e.g. Pete Sampras) who was a carrier, it did affect their performance. (Pete Sampras tried to knock out his opponents quickly as he new he’d be vulnerable and tire if matches went on too long). The website suggests L-Carnitine as one key supplement thal carriers could benefit by having.
While for many people being a carrier is not that symptomatic— they might get more tired— for endurance athletes it’s a big deal
Most doctors are ignorant on this because they are dealing with the general public, not triathletes.
One more thing to add-- high elevation (where oxygen levels are lower) puts a greater stress on Thalassemia carriers.
Best Wishes,
Marianne