Hello, new here, intro to me

Hi there. I am a 27 yo female with what I think is beta thal minor. My mother has it, my sister has it, my grandmother and great grandmother had it. My family is originally (my great grandma) from Italy. Untill now I have never really known much about this disorder, always heard the same old sayings, eat your red meat and greens, lol.

Looking back on my life I suppose I can see all sorts of things that may have been attributed to thal minor. I was never active in sports because I would always run out of breath and hyperventilate, I was always plagued with headaches, and bone pains as a child (growing pains) that as an adult I still get. I was diagnosed with manic depression when I quit smoking last year and was medicated for a while for that. I have an anxiety issue that causes great digestive upset that has prevented my from enjoying many things in life so far.

Anyways, enough of the bad stuff. I decided this year that I was going to change my life. I quite smoking for good. I hired a personal trainer. I now see a personal trainer 3 days a week and have started jogging 3 days a week. My trainer has helped me physically and emotionally. I am learning to battle my anxiety with positive thinking as well as balancing my diet and learning to listen to my body. So i am here to learn as much as I can about this disorder to arm myself with information.

I am specifically looking for information or experience with this disorder and weight lifting and working out. I wonder about my progress and am interested to understand the process that my body is physically and physiologically going through during this process.  I am supplementing my diet with salmon oil, multivitamin as well as B-complex vitamen and natural Vit.E. I eat a medium fat diet with white meat and lots of veggies too.

So lastly, I'd like to say that after reading quite a few posts on here I feel really lucky to be minor and I have a ton of respect and admiration for you all that are living with the more difficult of this disorder, I never even knew it existed.

Cheers, Kara from Canada

Hi Kara and welcome,

You  are already doing many of the things you need to do to better your health. Your symptoms do all sound like thal minor, and diet, nutriton and exercise all are very important to maintain your health. I would suggest looking at our section on supplementation at
http://www.thalassemiapatientsandfriends.com/index.php?topic=118.0;highlight=supplementation

Wheatgrass tablets or extract may be of some use in keeping your hemoglobin level up, along with your energy level. I think you've already seen what proper nutrition and exercise can do for your health. Continue to read through the posts about thal minor and learn as much as you can about what minors experience and please share what you feel makes positive improvements in your health. I do know majors who lift weights and work out, and the main consideration is to go at your own pace, and as you said, listen to your body. Some great athletes have been thal minors (Pete Sampras, Zindane), so you can do what you want if you think positive.

Above all, if you plan children at any time, make sure that the father is not a carrier, as two carriers have a chance of having thal majors, and that can be prevented if you know both parents are carriers in advance.

Hi Kara!
to the site!