This is more of a theoretical question, one which has stopped me from trying to get some sleep this afternoon despite desperately needing it! Anyway…
As MS is an auto-immune disease, does that mean that our baseline white blood cell count would be higher or lower than average? I have no idea if this is the case in other auto-immune diseases. If so, would this then influence the interpretation of blood tests throughout our medical lives?
This is all apropos nothing at all, really, Just curious. I should get out more!
I don’t believe MS affects white blood cell count at all (though some of the medications for it might).
The immune system in MS is neither unusually weak, nor unusually strong - just misdirected, having mistakenly identified myelin as hostile.
If it had any (reliable) effect on white blood cell count, that could be used as one of the diagnostic indicators. But in fact, the only reason they do blood tests at all is to rule out other conditions. It doesn’t give any insight at all into whether the person has MS - except that a full house of clear/normal results eliminates a number of other possibilities.
Thanks for that - as I say, it was just one of those “train of thought” things you have when you really should be trying to relax! I really wish I had an “off” switch sometimes!