BY LORI CULWELL
So– remember that whole thing about how I am weird and have an inexplicable lack of white blood cells?
If not, let me catch you up. Sometimes my number of white blood cells goes down to an abnormally low level–so low that I get fevers about once a month, and every time a kid sneezes on me, I'm done. I also seem to need more sleep than a regular person. I don't want to be overly dramatic about this white count, but I did once have a blood test where a doctor said "Whoa– that's how many white blood cells you have… after you had chemo."
This has been going on for at least ten years, maybe more. If you knew me in high school, you will recall that I got mono junior year and was out of school for THREE MONTHS, during which I lost alot of weight, my spleen was enlarged, and I had a constant fever. Sometimes I'm actually fine for long periods of time, and then it goes down again and it seems to be extremely hard to get it to go back to normal.
I'm sure you're totally interested in the whole history of my white blood cells, but let's just say I had an almost normal amount in 2006. By 2007 the count was on the way back down, and then in 2008 I got the zombie death flu–a flu so intense I think I gave it to some of you through this blog–and my white count went below 3,000, which is actually really bad. This was the flu I got despite getting the flu shot, and I was also really stressed out at the time, and that's the lowest I can remember it being in a number of years. No good!
I think I gained 500 white blood cells in six months after that, and then another 800 in the past year, which prompted my doctor to recommend I see a hematologist because clearly my bone marrow is deficient in some way.
Which I didn't do until a month ago, because dude– hematologists are also oncologists, and I just didn't even want to go there, know what I mean? People are in there getting chemotherapy for real cancer, and I actually felt really guilty about going in to a doctor's office and complaining when mostly I feel pretty good and the patients in the office would probably kill to feel as good as I feel. I'm totally serious.
But then, my father asked if I would please go, and I finally I relented, and the hematologist turned out to be really cool, but basically said that when your white blood count fluctuates like that, it's probably an autoimmune disorder, so he took a gallon of my blood to run a whole battery of tests for everything from lupus to psoraisis to a bunch of other disorders they usually rule out on "House," and said I had to come back in two weeks for blood monitoring. Fun! He also mentioned it could be some kind of deficiency, but that there would probably need to be bunch of tests to define which one.
I am getting to the point of this story, but I wanted to emphasize that this problem has been going on for a very long time, mostly because when you hear what the solution turned out to be, it's going to amaze you that much more. Also, it does not feel that great to not have enough white blood cells– not like your bones hurt or anything, but there is an underlying sense of weakness there, sort of a frailty that you just don't want to have all the time when you're an adult. Also, the fevers, and the sleeping. Oh my God the sleeping.
Anyhoo, I had been reading for some time about how vitamin D is this big underrated vitamin and how they're going to raise the minimum daily requirement because no one is getting enough, and I remembered a doctor telling me I was deficient a few years ago, but since she also said the same thing to Stephan, I totally thought it was just a thing they were saying to everyone so I didn't do anything about it, but then I started hearing about it more and a Facebook friend whose dad is a breast cancer surgeon was talking about it, so I decided to try taking more vitamin d as well as zinc and more vitamin c to give my immune system some support, and for scientific purposes I decided to start this the day I had all that blood taken, so that at the two-week follow up I could see if it did anything.
So, in case you're keeping score, that's two doctors, a bunch of years, and just about 4,000 white blood cells when I started.
Add a 5,000 iu vitamin d pill daily, 1,000 mg of vitamin c and 50 mg of zinc plus two weeks, and you get…
Double the white count. In fourteen days. DOUBLE. Like, I have a normal amount again for the first time in three or four years. I am not a doctor so I can't advise you (like at all) on whether you should be taking more vitamin D, but it definitely helped me. Already I don't need as much sleep, and I feel much more normal and not like I'm always catching something. Amazing, I tell you!
In case this post is going to cause you to examine your own multivitamin bottle to see if you could use some more D, I have read varying reports on how much they're going to raise the standard, so I will just tell you some stuff I read and encourage you to ask a doctor if you want a real medical opinion. I also pulled some vitamin D products on amazon.com, in case you've been meaning to up your D intake and just need a reminder.
My doctor said he thought they were going to raise it to 2,000 IU for the recommended daily requirement, especially for women. He also said to take more calcium, as they apparently work together.
I know another doctor has been researching the effects of a 10,000 IU dose on everything from cancer to MS. I also have a friend who takes a 50,000 IU dose once a week as prescribed by her doctor.
Here are some Vitamin Ds on Amazon, in case you want to throw one of them in your cart. That's where I get mine, at least.
So, like I said, when in doubt ask your doctor to check to see if you're deficient, but I definitely saw an improvement when I upped my intake, leading me to point out how ironic it is that a long-standing, stressful and annoying health problem could be solved with an $11 bottle of vitamins.
Sometimes, it really is the little things. No, I mean literally. Those pills are tiny! Who knew??
A few more things:
- After I posted this, a few other people told me about things that supposedly re-grow your white blood cells. Green tea is one of them, zinc is another. I don't like green tea at all, but I do take zinc (this one, to be specific):
2. Here is what my doctor told me: If you have chronic low white blood cells, make sure they re-check your levels at least every 3 months for a certain period of time before they start drawing conclusions or making you go on meds or have a bone marrow biopsy. Some people have a range of WBCs that goes higher/ lower than the norm. Also, make sure they test you for Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) and/ or Reactivated Mono, as I understand that EBV can eat your white blood cells as well.
Food for thought!