A few days back, very few people are aware of the word Platelet. But thanks to the growing awareness, people are now often worried about their platelet counts and the ways in keeping them steady.

What are Platelets?

Platelets are the tiniest cells in our blood that stop bleeding. In other words, they plug the injury and don’t let the blood to drain away. A healthy person might have 150,000 to 450,000 platelets per micro litre of blood. But there might be occasions where the count of Platelets might start falling rapidly.

Reasons

In medical terms, low platelet count is called as `Thrombocytopenia’. This might be caused due to...

- Anaemia.

- Deficiency of B12, Iron and folate.

- Viral infections such as HIV, Dengue, Chickenpox.

- Drugs ranging from Aspirin to chemotherapy drugs.

- Severe illness such as cancer, liver cirrhosis and leukaemia.

- Heavy alcohol consumption.

- Exposure to radiation, toxic chemicals and chemotherapy.

Symptoms

Unusual fall of Platelet count can cause a wide range of symptoms from normal bleeding to brain haemorrhage. Some of them are mentioned here...

- Dark coloured skin rashes due to bleeding within the layers of the skin.

- Abnormal blood flow in menstruation.

- Prolonged bleeding from the wounds.

- Continuous bleeding from nose and gums.

- Unusual bleeding in stools and urine.

- Discomfort, weakness and fatigue.

Treatment

Often, a drop in platelet count can be a temporary phenomenon. The advice and diagnosis of a medical expert is needed if the Platelet count drops below 150,000 in our blood. But there is no need to worry unless such dip is the result of a severe illness such as leukaemia.

- Earlier, Platelet transfusion is thought to be an immediate remedy to increase the count. But now experts are suggesting platelet transfusion to be a last resort as it is expensive and has some

side effects.

- Various drugs such as Romiplostim (Nplate), Eltrombopag (Promacta) are widely available to induce Platelet count.

- Foods such as Papaya, Pumpkin, Pomegranate, Milk, Carrots, Wheatgrass, Spinach, Oranges are thought to be highly useful in encouraging the Platelet count.

- Pills made out of Carica papaya leaf extracts (ex: Carpill) have proved to induce the Platelet count without any side effects. 

- Nirjara.