Alpha What?!?

I mentioned in my previous post that the doctor saw something in my lab results that made him refer me to Genetics.  What was it? He said that I have Alpha Thalassemia trait. Alpha what? I said? Apparently, as he was looking at my CBC results, he noticed that my red blood cells are small but my iron is normal. That led him to that diagnosis.  Alpha Thalassemia is hereditary and is common to Southeast Asian people.  It is inherited from one's parents and essentially effects the amount of hemoglobin in the red blood cells.