Stress related results?

[mellieevans]

Hi all,

I’ve got ET and take 1g Hydrea per day and have done for several years. Over the last year, my platelets have slowly risen from the mid-300s to 495. Today I got my most recent blood test results and they are down to 375.

I am wondering if stress can play a factor in my platelet count? I am a ‘stress head’ by nature but not having worked for 3 months due to the pandemic, I am now soooooo relaxed! Or is is just a coincidence 🤔

[Ebot]

Yup, I think you’ll find plenty of anecdotal evidence on this Forum suggesting that stress affects not just how we feel and manage our MPNs but also manifests itself in our blood counts.

If you’ve been more chilled these past few months then chances are you are eating / drinking and sleeping better and doing a range of other things (intentionally or not) that are positive for your health. Or simply, you’re not doing the things that are detrimental. Just goes to show ......

[mellieevans in reply to Ebot]

I absolutely agree that cutting out the detrimental things has helped enormously. Lockdown has been a great learning curve.

[Kdavie12]

Hello, I have PV now, I used to have ET and have been shielding for 3 months. Working from home I have had much less stress and my results have been good. I take Pegasys. I think stress and being negative damages our health. Mindfulness and meditation help. I don’t know how stress impacts specifically our MPN

[Doggy1903 in reply to Kdavie12]

Very interested in the element of stress in our conditions. Wonder if research has been done to study if we are people who try to cover /cope with high levels of stress but then cause or contribute to internal stresses.

So hope you are keeping well. Do you mind me asking long you had ET before converting to PV? Did you feel any symptoms, or was it picked up by blood tests please?

[Kdavie12 in reply to Doggy1903]

Hello, hope you are well. In 1992 I went to see my GP because I thought I had a cold sore and as I had young children, I wanted to check if it was contagious. I am so grateful to my gp who sent me for a blood test and my platelet ranged between 727 and 984. I had a bone marrow biopsy and was given busulfan. I had a good response with fall in my platelet count.

In 2005 my hématocrit was 49 and was given hydroxyurea. I now take Pegasys.

Hope that helps. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have more questions.

I am feeling anxious about going back to work.

Take care.

[EmeraldA]

Very interesting indeed! They do say that stress in inflammatory. My platelets went up a good bit when first diagnosed. Maybe that was partly related to stress. People have mentioned this being a factor before. Thanks for posting.

[hunter5582]

The short answer is that stress can influence many things in your body, including how your platelets behave. That is not just the count, but also the platelet activity. There is solid research on this. Here are a couple of samples.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Unrelieved Stress = bad for your body.

Dealing with stress = good for your body.

Conclusion = Reduce stress when you can, manage if effectively when you must.

[mellieevans in reply to hunter5582]

Interesting, thanks for the links.