White Blood cells

Are there any foods, vitamins or minerals that help build white blood cells?

[Fernando Roque, MD]

There isn't any special food or tonic which would increase the white cell count, particularly if the white cell count went down because of chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Eating a well balanced meal with adequate amounts of dietary protein can help raise blood counts (not just white cell counts), but the effect of diet does not happen immediately.

There is a family of drugs, called granulocyte colony stimulating factors (GCSF - examples are filgrastim and sargramostim) which are effective in raising low white cell counts within 24 hours after administration.  These are usually given a few days after the  chemotherapy.