Son with Minor Thalassemia Apha O Traits in Triathalon Sports

Dear Admin / Andy

Thank you for approving me into this forum. Me and my wife have been having sleepless nights due to what we discover recently. My wife is also a Thal Alpha Treats, but we did not know of this not until she was pregnant with my daughter 13 years ago. We did do a Thal test for both our kids when they born but miss out on asking the doctor to explain it to us. Anyway lately due to the sport that our kids are involve in, they are require to submit a full health check to the sports union, only than we discover that my son was diagnose with this.

Both my kids are active in swimming and triathlon, in fact he is rather good and have been winning 7 races last year, but we are concern if this is too much for him and will this be a danger to his life. We have been reading your forum lately and it have been very helpful to us in fact much better than seeking an advice from our local hematologists.

Here is his test results :

Hemoglobin   116 g/L
RBC              5.59 x 10 /L
PVC              0.38
MCV             67 fL
MCH             21 pg
MCHC           309
RDW            17.1%

Hemoglobin   A2    2.9%
Hemoglobin   F      0.4%

Serum Iron    10.8 umol/L
Transferrin      2.19 g/L
TIBC              49.1 umol/L
% Saturation  19%
Ferritin           52 ug/L


I do have some question and hope that someone could help or advice us.

1. What type of multi vitamins that we should give him and what will the recommended dosage ?

2. Will he get tired easy ? What can we do ? To stop the sports is something we would like to avoid as this is something he enjoys of doing and after years in competitive swimming he is finally feeling great about the triathlon sport as we could never accomplish this in competitive  swimming (perhaps due to lack of endurance due to his condition).

3. His 15yrs old and if we get him started on the vitamins will this damage his liver or kidney ?

So far we haven't inform him about his condition as we were worry about his emotion more than anything else as it have been a tough journey for him as far as sports is concern. Triathlon have been a big boost for this morale. Iif we have not done the blood test we would never have guess that he have thal, as there is no sign of it in terms of growth or obvious tiredness.

Appreciate if anyone could advice us.


Concern Dad

Simon

Simon,

Alpha thal trait does not cause many problems, if any. His Hb is slightly below normal but it's not a big deal. There is no reason for him to alter his physical activities. Exercise should be encouraged in thal minors. Rest is also important so he should learn not to overdo things and get rest when his body tells him its tired.

He should take folic acid supplements daily, as this does help to build red blood cells. Folic acid is universally recommended for alpha thal. Vitamins will not harm the liver. I would suggest he also take a multivitamin without iron.

Dear Andy


Thanks for the advice, can you recommend the dosage of folic asid ? Appreciate it.


Simon