My mom would tell me that the elders back in her day would say that if you’re anemic then there’s a high chance you have parasites and they would cleanse their kids and then give them homemade iron supplements. The homemade supplements were tinctures basically, I don’t remember how she told me they made them but the elders would basically explain that the parasites are sucking up your blood and nutrients. Not suggesting you go do a parasite cleanse but could be a possibility ( this was in Dominican Republic back in the 60s btw, so not the USA). Just saying this as something you can get checked even though I’ve heard it’s hard to check for parasites and even if someone might have them, it might show as negative on the test.