The first scientific article on anaemia was published in 1807, marking a tipping point in modern medicine. Despite a vast bulk of literature on this topic, the interpretation of anaemia is not always straight forward. The most common form of anaemia, the iron deficiency anaemia, shares several characteristics with another common form of anaemia, the anaemia of chronic disease, or better: 'inflammatory anaemia'.This article provides the clinician with several factors which could aid in differentiating both forms of anaemia, such as parameters of iron transport, bone marrow investigation as well as atrial with iron supplements. Furthermore, this article discusses iron metabolism and methods of supplementing iron, gives guidance in the use of cut-off values for haemoglobin in the elderly and interpretation of the adequacy of the reticulocyte response. Lastly this article discusses the added value of a manual differentiation to determine the nature of the anaemia.