Title: What can be done about elevated white blood cell count? - HT Health
Headings: What can be done about elevated white blood cell count?
What can be done about elevated white blood cell count?
Dr. Keith Roach

Content: Normal" in this context means that 95 percent of the healthy population is within that range, which implies that about 2.5 percent of healthy people will have a white blood cell count over 11,000. Many conditions cause the WBC count to increase temporarily, especially infection. However, if the condition is persistent, then the first step in understanding why is to determine which type of white blood cells has increased. The most plentiful WBCs normally are the lymphocytes and the granulocytes (the others, monocytes, basophils and eosinophils, are very rarely the cause for a leukocytosis). Infection typically causes an increase in granulocytes. High numbers of lymphocytes are seen in certain infections such as acute mononucleosis, but also in myeloproliferative disorders, like the leukemias. Given your mild elevation, I don't think there is anything you need to do; the likelihood of this being a serious condition is small. If the level keeps climbing, your doctor will do some further testing or will refer you to hematologist, who will try to find out the underlying cause of the leukocytosis. Only when that is known can treatment be recommend .