[LisaE]

Ashwagandha and neutrophil levels

by LisaE on Mon Jun 26, 2017 8:17 pm

As my husband would call it, "Lisa's Patent Nostrums."

When my husband started back on treatment in December, as we expected he started becoming anemic and neutropenic. The neutrophils and WBCs in particular were dropping fast.

He's on Revlimid 25 mg 21 days out of 28, Ninlaro 4 mg weekly 3 weeks out of 4, and 20 mg of dex weekly, every week.

March we started him on 1 gram of ashwagandha in the evenings. He caught cold in early March, so that might explain the rapid rise in his WCB and neutrophils, but he recovered from the cold and they've stayed comfortably in the normal range, while his RBCs and hemoglobin are decreasing slightly each month.

This is an anecdote. It's not data. There are studies showing the herb in this dosage can help prevent chemo-associated neutropenia – mostly done in Asian centres – but it's not well studied.

That said, my husband's numbers went from tanking to pre-treatment normal and have held there for 3 months. It's more than enough for us to continue using it.

[Ruchi]

Re: Ashwagandha and neutrophil levels

by Ruchi on Tue Jul 18, 2017 2:22 pm

Hi LisaE,

My mother is in India and is on the Revlimid, Velcade, and dexamethasone (RVD) treatment regimen due to a high kappa-lambda ratio since January.

Her ANC level in her last 5 sets of blood work has been below 1700, and it was not recovering as it used to. I posted a question about this elsewhere in the forum:

"Low ANC level while on RVD treatment" (July 8, 2017)

I came across your post regarding usage of ashwagandha and asked my mother to take it. She started taking it 3 days before her last blood test, and her ANC increased from 1694 to 2134. It could just be a coincidence, as she had taken it for only 3 days before the test, but I thought of mentioning it here. I will keep on checking to see what her counts look like during future tests as well.

Thanks a lot for the information.

[LisaE]

Re: Ashwagandha and neutrophil levels

by LisaE on Wed Jul 19, 2017 1:34 am

That's great that the ANC is up, regardless of the cause.

But I'd love to hear it it continues well with the herb. My husband's got bloodwork on Monday, so I'll see how he's doing as well.