Why chewing ice anemia

Vitamin and mineral deficiencies during pregnancy can cause serious problems. Start by going to your family doctor and explaining your symptoms. Your doctor will likely run tests on your blood to check for an iron deficiency.

If your blood work suggests anemia, your doctor may run more tests to look for an underlying cause, such as excessive bleeding. If you have serious ice cravings, you may end up eating a lot more than you realize. People with pagophagia can eat several trays or bags of ice each day. Your teeth are simply not built for the wear and tear caused by eating bags or trays of ice every day.

Over the course of time, you can destroy the enamel on your teeth. Tooth enamel is the strongest part of the teeth. It makes up the outermost layer of each tooth and protects the inner layers from decay and damage. When enamel erodes, the teeth can become extremely sensitive to hot and cold substances. The risk of cavities also increases significantly. If iron deficiency anemia is left untreated, it can become severe.

It can lead to several health issues, including:. Pica is a very dangerous condition. It can lead to a variety of complications, many of them medical emergencies.

If someone has pagophagia, they might be compelled to eat other substances, too. In adults, pica for ice — called pagophagia — is most often associated with pregnancy and iron-deficiency anemia, a condition in which the lack of iron in the bloodstream impedes the body's ability to make normal red blood cells.

We don't know why or how a craving for chewing ice develops. People with iron-deficiency anemia sometimes have inflammation of the tongue, and ice may relieve the discomfort. Occasionally, chewing ice is a sign of emotional distress. To continue reading this article, you must log in. Already a member? Login ». As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles.

No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.

Thanks for visiting. Even if your teeth themselves are healthy and strong, your ice-chewing habit—whether you crunch on cubes or crushed ice—can cause tiny cracks in the enamel that covers the teeth.

Over time, these cracks can grow and expose the underlying dentinal tubules, resulting in sensitive teeth. In extreme cases, biting and chewing ice could cause your teeth to fracture. It may be. Those with this condition experience desires to eat items with no nutritional value, even non-food items. The type of pica specific to cravings for ice is known as pagophagia, which is frequently a symptom of iron deficiency anemia. This occurs because your body cannot produce sufficient amounts of hemoglobin, a blood protein molecule that carries oxygen from your lungs to tissues in the rest of your body, and carbon dioxide from the tissues back to the lungs.

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