Patient instructed that Anemia is a condition characterized by an inadequate amount of red blood cells, which are produced in your bone marrow. Red blood cells contain hemoglobin, a substance that picks up oxygen from your lungs, carries it throughout your body, and gives it to your cells. Your cells need oxygen to perform the basic functions that generate energy and keep you alive. In addition, hemoglobin picks up some of the carbon dioxide given off by your cells and returns it to the lungs, where it is exhaled when you breathe out. Without enough red blood cells to transport oxygen to your cells and carbon dioxide away from your cells, your body functions at a less than optimal level.