Oncology is a terrible disease, which in modern life has long ceased to be rare. Chemotherapy can ensure the absence of relapse and prolonged remission or reduce the tumor. Such treatment involves the use of poisons and toxins that affect malignant tumors, but at the same time it harms the healthy cells of the body, therefore it is not without side effects, in the first place among them the drop in the white blood cells responsible for the immune system. But there are many ways to raise white blood cells after chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy prescription
The measures that need to be taken to restore the body after chemotherapy, largely depend on the following factors:
- which organs were affected by cancer;
- what goals the treatment pursued;
- what drugs were used.
The effectiveness of the use of toxins to affect cancer cells depends on which organ the tumor formed on. The sympathetic nervous system or uterus can be completely cured. For the prostate or bladder, chemotherapy provides long-term remission. The stomach or kidneys can be controlled in 50-70% of cases. And tumors of the liver and pancreas are not very susceptible to toxins, they need to be operated on or irradiated.
Classification
By goals, chemotherapy is divided into the following categories:
- preoperative to reduce the size of the tumor and more gentle surgical intervention;
- postoperative to remove the residue of cancer cells;
- palliative to inhibit tumor progression in incurable cases.
Drugs are selected so that there are more positive effects on the body than side effects. To this end, new drugs are being developed:
- targeted, affecting not all systems and organs, but targeting cancer cells;
- immunotherapy to activate the body's own defenses;
- hormonal, acting on the tumor with synthesized hormones.
However, for the treatment to be successful, the tumor must have certain characteristics or be hormone-sensitive. This does not always happen, in addition, new drugs act more on tumor mutations than on itself, so their use is very limited.
And traditional medicines lead to a drop in blood counts. Most often they affect white blood cells, but some inhibit platelets or red blood cells. This manifests itself already in 1-2 weeks after the start of the course, when the poisons have already acted on all blood cells, and the bone marrow has not yet managed to produce new ones.
The next course is prescribed after a certain time (usually several weeks), during which the body must have time to recover. During rest, the patient's condition is monitored: the absence of damage to the liver and mucous membranes is checked, neurological symptoms (nausea, headache, depression, etc.) are eliminated, blood tests are done. If platelets fall dramatically, there will be a risk of bleeding, so the patient will receive a platelet transfusion. When white blood cells fall while the person is infected with an infection, antibiotics are prescribed.
White blood cells
So, toxins and poisons very much affect blood counts, but in order to decide how to raise white blood cells after chemotherapy, you need to find out what they are and what functions they perform.
White blood cells are white blood cells that have a nucleus. They protect the body from external and internal harmful agents. They do this by absorbing and digesting foreign particles, as well as secreting antibodies. For the sake of their function, white blood cells can penetrate the walls of blood vessels and enter the intercellular space.
The number of these cells in the body is not a constant. On average, there are 4-9 billion per liter, but the content may increase in the evening, after eating, physical and emotional stress, exposure to temperature changes. If their number is greatly reduced, leukopenia is diagnosed.
Thus, white blood cells are indispensable and very important for the body, therefore, it is necessary to raise the level of leukocytes after chemotherapy.
Medical advice
After chemotherapy, rehabilitation is necessary. The doctor gives recommendations regarding it, taking into account the peculiarities of the course of the disease and patient treatment. But in general, rehabilitation measures include the elimination of side effects. To do this, prescribe medication, diet.
All this is aimed at restoring those organs on which chemotherapy dealt the most noticeable blow. First, they take care of the internal health of the body and only then on the elimination of external deficiencies (worsened condition of hair, nails).
If there is a suspicion that the patient is developing depression, a visit to a psychotherapist is necessary, since mental balance greatly affects the processes of physical balance.
Drug List
How to raise white blood cells after chemotherapy? The best option is medications selected by your doctor. It is not worth taking medications alone and without consulting an oncologist, even if they are dispensed without a prescription. But it is useful to know what specialists usually prescribe for their patients and by what principle these drugs work.
At different stages of leukopenia, they use their drugs that raise white blood cells after chemotherapy. On the first they are:
- "Methyluracil" in tablets stimulates the immune system, restores bone marrow tissue, which allows for the maturation of leukocytes and their entry into the circulatory system.
- "Pentoxyl" relieves inflammation, stimulates the function of white blood cells, and increases the body's overall resistance.
- "Leucovorin" by injection improves hematopoiesis, selectively acts on healthy cells.
- "Imunofan" has an immunoregulatory effect and overcomes the drug resistance of tumor cells.
- "Polyoxidonium" exhibits immunomodulating and anti-inflammatory effects.
In the second stage, these drugs can also be used, but in addition to raising white blood cells after chemotherapy, the following remedies will help:
- "Sodium nucleinate" stimulates bone marrow activity and white blood cell activity;
- "Remaxol" regulates the activity of the liver, restores antioxidant protection;
- "Betaleikin" restores bone marrow hematopoiesis, is prescribed in advanced cases.
The extreme stage of leukopenia requires treatment in a hospital under the supervision of specialists. The patient will be given "Betaleikin" without fail, in addition to him, the following powerful drugs may be prescribed:
- "Batilol" inhibits the decrease in the number of white blood cells, contributes to their rapid recovery.
- Leucogen stimulates the production of white blood cells.
- "Pyridoxine" stimulates metabolic processes.
The treatment is not limited to these drugs. In addition to them, other colony-stimulating agents from a number of analogues can be prescribed. The intake of tablets in a hospital is combined with the procedures for introducing drugs with donated red blood cells into the circulatory system.
Diet
In addition to taking medicine for cancer patients, you must adhere to the principles of a healthy diet. The doctor usually prescribes the necessary diet, but if he has not left any strict recommendations, you can make your own diet.
Nutrition should restore strength and energy. To do this, you need to consume 2600-2800 kcal per day daily, select dishes balanced in terms of nutrient ratio, include vitamins and minerals in your diet, eat often, but in small portions, do not forget to drink water. To make such a diet a pleasure, you need to focus on your own preferences and do not forget that there should be variety on the table. This will help awaken the appetite of the body, suffering from poisons and excessive amounts of medication.
It is better to refuse semi-finished products, caffeine, alcoholic products, fatty and fried foods, artificial sweeteners. Lusciously sweet foods can aggravate nausea, which often appears after chemotherapy.
After each meal, you should brush your teeth or at least rinse your mouth. The fact is that after chemotherapy the body is weakened, and harmful microorganisms attack it with a double force.
Products after chemotherapy
After chemotherapy, you should include lean meat and fish, seafood, eggs, milk, cereals, fruits, vegetables, stewed fruit and green tea in your diet.
You can suppress nausea by snacking with dried fruits, nuts, cottage cheese, yoghurts or berries. Recovery also helps bananas, oranges, apricots, rich in potassium and magnesium. Vegetable salads are useful to season with olive oil.
Some foods can even alleviate complications after chemotherapy. So, tea and non-acidic juices reduce pain in the oropharynx, soft vegetables solve the problem of difficulty swallowing, and protein dishes eliminate dry mouth and reduce the viscosity of saliva. With severe weight loss, cheeses, sweet fruits, and olive oil should be included in your diet. If body weight rises, it is better to give preference to lean fish, skinless poultry, and brown rice.
White blood cell boosting products
These are general principles of nutrition, but in a particular case when the question arises of how to raise white blood cells after chemotherapy, you need to choose products that can increase the number of missing cells. These include:
- Buckwheat, rich in vitamins and substances that increase hemoglobin and white blood cells. In the form of cereals, it is possible to cook cereals and side dishes, buckwheat flour is an excellent basis for casseroles and fritters.
- Red fish saturates the body with beneficial acids, iodine and potassium. This is one of those products that you can quickly raise white blood cells after chemotherapy. In addition, regular use twice a week reduces the number of cancer cells and prevents them from spreading to the organs.
- Raw beets, saturated with useful trace elements, manifest themselves as an antioxidant and help raise white blood cells after chemotherapy. In order not to irritate the gastric mucosa with the product in its pure form, you can make a mix of beetroot and carrot juices, as well as eat salads with beets and other vegetables seasoned with olive oil.
- Pomegranate, useful for all blood components, can be included in the daily diet as an independent dish or as a component of salads and mousses.
- Dry red wine, useful only in minimal dosages up to 150 ml. It is better to drink it at dinner, as it is well absorbed in the evening.
- Nuts that enhance mental performance and white blood cell production. You can use them in any form, of all types of nuts, walnuts are most useful.
It is also good to eat green apples and peppers, rice, chicken and red caviar. There is no better option than raising white blood cells after chemotherapy with products that support the body.
Folk methods
Sometimes the desire to improve their condition leads to the fact that people who have undergone chemotherapy resort to folk remedies. It is possible to raise white blood cells after chemotherapy in this way, but treatment should be safe in the first place, therefore, you must first consult with an oncologist. He should tell you exactly what tinctures are supposed to be taken, and how often. If the specialist is not against alternative methods, recipes can be used using products that raise white blood cells in the blood after chemotherapy. They will be as follows:
- Effective tincture of walnut. Fruits or internal partitions are cleaned, filled with alcohol, infused for 14 days. After this time, 1 tablespoon of tincture is taken 3 times a day.
- Oat broth. 2 tablespoons of raw materials are poured with 2 cups of boiled water and boiled for 20 minutes. After cooling, the mixture is passed through cheesecloth, and then taken orally in 0.5 cups three times a day.
- Herbal harvest. 10 g of the root bought and leaves of currant and 40 g of dandelion root are crushed, mixed, filled with 200 ml of hot water and boiled over low heat for 10 minutes. Then the mixture is infused for another 20 minutes, filtered and diluted with boiling water. The finished product is taken 3 times a day before meals.
Before using any of these recipes, designed to raise the level of leukocytes after chemotherapy, you need to make sure that the components are not allergic. The advantage of folk remedies is the gentle removal of toxins, which does not disrupt the processes in the gastrointestinal tract. But you should not expect too fast results, you can raise white blood cells after chemotherapy with alternative methods no earlier than after a month of treatment. In addition, the reception of funds should become a habit and be regular.
Tips & Testimonials
How to raise white blood cells after chemotherapy, say people who have encountered cancer and defeated it. They say that getting rid of the side effects of treatment with just taking medication is difficult, the approach should be comprehensive. There are stories when not only the quality of blood improved, but oncology was completely cured thanks to the following measures:
- the transition to proper nutrition, in particular the rejection of animal products that load the body;
- work with psychologists for the internal mood and taking a course for recovery;
- reasonable and regular physical activity, accelerating metabolic processes;
- taking useful tinctures that help the body cope with the disease on its own.
In addition, according to reviews, the following helped people to raise white blood cells after chemotherapy:
- taking special tea that enhances immunity (for example, "FitoGora");
- daily use of carrot, beetroot, cabbage, potato, apple and other freshly squeezed juices;
- drinking plenty of clean water;
- the use of folk remedies;
- compliance with the recommendations of the oncologist.
Therefore, you should not sound the alarm if leukocytes fall after chemotherapy. You can find out how to raise them from your doctor. With him, you need to consult about which of the above treatment options are suitable in a particular case.