Stopped Overhydration and Added Electrolytes to Increase Platelets Naturally

Wanted to share some positive results that just happened to me regarding increasing my platelets naturally from 107 to 207 within sixteen days of March and April 2020.

My history in brief was that I was diagnosed with ITP in July 2016 and had multiple crashes annually, except just a sole one in 2019. Now in 2020, I had a crash in February and just a month after, my platelets were crashing again. Was so frustrated. Dexamethasone was always the answer and my platelets would jump back up for me, as in the latest case in Feb 2020. I've been trying to find natural solutions since this all started but without success. With COVID-19, I was scared to think I would have to go to the hospital again in such short time so I doubled up efforts to find some more information that could help. I watched videos and read health related articles that lead me to the concepts of overhydrating and electrolytes.

As mentioned, my platelets began dropping again in early March and went from 209 to 107 when I had come across the concepts of overhydrating and electrolytes. I had always been drinking lots of water daily to meet my supposed hydration levels for years. I stopped that immediately to test if overhydrating was a culprit and I drank an electrolyte beverage called Pedialyte. I drank only when I felt thirsty. I had my bloodtest with 107 platelets on Thursday March 17th, stopped drinking excess water Sunday March 20th after reading the idea, drank one litre of Pedialyte electrolyte beverage over Sunday/Monday and then had a bloodtest on Monday March 21st at 4:30 pm. Result was 144! It seemed to me to have worked!

Later that week, I then had another blood test on Thursday March 24th and result was 152. Great! It went up but slowly. I hadn't had anymore Pedialyte so I bought two more litres and drank those over the weekend and had another blood test on Monday March 28th to see if that would help increase my platelets faster. Result for platelets was 184! I never had multiple increasing platelet counts using natural remedies! This was the first time for me. Next bloodtest was this past Monday April 6th and platelets were 207. I did not have Pedialyte this past week at all. Such great news!

Also wanted to mention in stopping to drink excess amounts of water, I found myself going less to urinate throughout the day. This activity perhaps was releasing too many minerals, vitamins and electrolytes from my body and perhaps one of the problems with my platelet production. Or was my blood diluted from excess water? Not sure what the reason is but 1) stopping drinking too much water daily and 2) adding electrolytes to one's diet seemed to help me increase my platelets in this case.

Wanted to share my positive results with everyone here at PDSA.org forums who have or know someone with ITP and with low platelets in case this may help others. If anyone tries this, please consider replying with any results. That would be helpful! Thank you for reading my post and wishing everyone good health and strong platelets! God Bless

So how much fluid a day are you actually drinking?

Prior to my platelets increasing in March, I was drinking about a litre to litre and a half of water daily. That would include water, hot water, tea, beverages, etc. As a young student, I had learned to drink lots of water daily to hydrate well. I had played lots of sports as well growing up so it became a habit. I recall being taught my urine should be clear because that shows I'm drinking plenty of water.

After reading about overhydrating, I am now drinking only when I perceive thirst. This is perhaps just two small cups of water a day now. I'm eating lots of vegetables and fruit which I believe also give me plenty of hydration. I watch the color of my urine now and make sure it is yellow rather than clear, which is the opposite of my habit prior to my platelets going up naturally this March.

Also, I saw a video on YouTube from Dr. Eric Berg DC that discussed the misconception of drinking too much water daily. It helped me deduce that perhaps I should try cutting back my water intake daily and see if I was overhydrating, along with adding electrolytes to my system during that time.

Hope my answer helps!

As a very experienced nurse with a BSc (Hons) specialist degree in Renal Nursing in my opinion what you are doing is unwise to say the least. Two cups a day won't even cover your daily insensible fluid loss. Drinking 1500mls/day is barely sufficient.
I have several points to make here. It is of course up to you to choose whether you heed my advice or not.

1:- Lack of adequate hydration impacts upon the kidneys and can lead to chronic irreversible kidney failure requiring dialysis, let alone the other renal failure effects on the body, anaemia, high blood pressure, cardiovascular complications, osteodystrophy, hyperparathyroidism and death to name a few.

2:- Properly functioning kidneys maintain electrolyte levels correctly and supplements are not required. Taking supplements with inadequately functioning kidneys is dangerous particularly when they contain potassium as that could cause a cardiac arrest.

3:- ITP patients generally have immature platelets which are large and sticky ergo a higher risk of clots. Small clots may not cause a stroke, heart attack or pulmonary embolism but could easily block the minuscule vessels in the kidneys, or the eyes for that matter, therefore adequate hydration is essential. The first thing my haemo told me on my diagnosis of ITP was never get dehydrated.

4:- Dr Berg is not a medical practitioner he is a chiropractor who professes to be a nutritionalist, and to quote Mel A is "an Internet businessman, who markets dietary supplements".

5:- Medicine is an evidence based practice. I have trawled the Cochrane database for any articles or research by him and can find absolutely nothing. I can find no peer reviews on pubmed either. So I googled 'is Dr Eric Berg a quack' maybe you should too. I wouldn't touch him with a barge pole.

Thank you mrsb for sharing your knowledge with us, you are experienced in this area - I appreciate your post and I hope others who see it will also! I, unfortunately, am not a big water drinker but I'm trying to do better as I know it is good for me.

I think too many people believe everything they read on Wiki and see on youtube - probably I could sell myself as an expert and put out a video on whatever and people would believe and follow me!

Appreciate your factual reply and will consider it, thank you. Ultimately, wanted to share what suddenly worked for me naturally after 3.5 years of hospitalizations, harsh steroids and terrible experiences with ITP, which is to try to get platelets to increase. My aim is to share what happened to me and is not an estimation, as this happened to me just now in March 2020. I'm just as surprised as everyone. I'm throwing the kitchen sink at this like everyone else. From platelets dropping from my regular 200 platelet level to 107 platelets to then cutting my excess hydration and adding electrolytes, my platelets came up naturally back to 207 within 16 days. Never happened to me before. I always needed the steroid dexamethasone when my levels were sinking past 20. As my situation is continuing to evolve, I will update my platelet levels and what I'm doing. Hoping any information from my small victory can help. God Bless

Vancouver40 wrote:
...
My history in brief was that I was diagnosed with ITP in July 2016 and had multiple crashes annually, except just a sole one in 2019. Now in 2020, I had a crash in February and just a month after, my platelets were crashing again. Was so frustrated. Dexamethasone was always the answer and my platelets would jump back up for me, as in the latest case in Feb 2020. I've been trying to find natural solutions since this all started but without success.
...

Vancouver, thank you for sharing your experience. Hopefully future readers can benefit from your experience.

Having read a lot of posts on this forum, I'll have to say that some really odd things can happen to those who respond strongly to steroids. Note that I don't respond to steroids and NONE of these odd things have ever occurred with me - blah.

I'm not that surprised with your apparent remission by merely changing hydration level. I think the key to understanding how special you are in the ITP world is your stated history. That Prednisone/Dexamethasone has given you periods of remission (many times) in the past. That is really quite rare. It is like your on/off switch for ITP is easily changed. Can be either off or on and only needs a little push to change it. Some folks would say you are 'sensitive to ITP treatments'.

And with that, I think what you tried would be an interesting experiment for other ITP'ers who respond similarly to steroids.

Cheers to a long remission !

Awesome! Thank you for sharing.
My son was diagnosed after a very harsh dehydration event in S.Florida.
I have seen papers on severe dehydration events causing ITP in some people.
Your electrolytes experience is consistent with these papers.
God bless!

That would be so nice if that could help me, but I am being very cautious, since I have only had mine since November 2020! I had a count of 2 and was put in hospital where I was put on IVIG with steroids and was fine for a few months then boom it went down, signs of Petechia, but not as bad as before, then every 4 or 5 weeks back on steroids for a few days! However, I am eating healthy to fix weight, diabetes, thyroid and now ITP, lol! So always looking for natural ways! Thank you for your input! Eat everything that builds platelets, whew! And the Papaya Leaf Extract!

How much did you drink? There are so many to order. Powder or liquid? Advance e Care Plus. With
Or without immune support?

I drink 1 liter of the unflavored Pedialyte liquid with prebiotic and zinc in it. I drink it throughout the day slowly. Typically, I drink another liter again the next day. So back to back days. I don't drink it regularly or daily, only when my platelets are declining. That seems to help. Occasionally, I'll drink the flavored ones too but only if the unflavored option is unavailable at my grocery store or pharmacy.

Hi Vancouver, I was wondering if the pedialyte is still working for you in keeping your platelets up? 

Peach wrote:

Hi Vancouver, I was wondering if the pedialyte is still working for you in keeping your platelets up? 

Thank you for your question. When my platelets begin to decrease, I do continue to have pedialyte. I'll drink one 1 litre bottle throughout the day, taking sips as directed on the bottle. My platelet crashes have been less frequent which is good news.. My last episode was November 2021 and prior to that it had been a year a half before, July 2020. I believe the Pedialyte beverage of electrolytes help as I did see improved platelet counts right after consuming one litre of Pedialyte (unflavored ideally). I'd like to also add that with this, I do add several other supplements that also seem to help during these decreases. This includes monolaurin (three times a day with a meal), daily Probiotic (Renew Life -100 billion), a protein shake with greens daily (Vega Brand), Vitamin D3-K2 supplement daily (3000-5000 IUs) and I'll add Zinc too (25-50 mcg). I also drink Goats Milk and grass fed plain yogurt (2%), as well as Beef/Chicken livers and Beef bone broth during the time my platelets begin to start crashing. If possible, I'll also take days off from work to rest and sleep. This also seems to help. As a result, I've been able to increase platelets naturally several times this past year when they were on the way down towards a crash (Under 150K and consistently going down test after test). I also do blood tests regularly to see where I'm at with my platelet count and I keep a journal for recording my meals, activities, sleep, etc. This helps in seeing what might help and acts as a reference for the future. I also avoid Bee Propolis, Honey and other anticoagulants in my diet. I've also started eating limes in my diet for natural Vitamin C and apples, corn for increased fibre. My diet has definitely changed tremendously since my ITP started in July 2016 and I believe this has helped very much. Getting sunshine regularly has also been a priority and I've added being outside more for extended periods into my day for natural Vitamin D. Wishing you well and strong healthy platelets!

Wishing to update my post, as I recently saw an excellent video that discussed exactly this topic of overhydration, loss of electrolytes and it's impact on blood, which relates to thrombocytopenia and those of us with ITP. The title of the video is The 4 COMMON MISTAKES We Make When Drinking Water! | Dr. Steven Gundry. I believe Dr. Steven Gundry, who is a heart surgeon, validates my previous experience that overhydration needs to be avoided, as it can impact the electrolyte levels in our body, which assists with processes such as our blood production, including platelets. Further, Dr. Steven Gundry discusses the importance of water quality one consumes to ensure the natural processes of the body are healthy, which benefits healing. Highly recommended viewing for those with ITP! 

Vancouver it is the same with everything - moderation.   Why buy vitamins that have 1000% of the daily requirement of this or that - all these "mega" things cannot be healthy.  So I'd say that's the same with liquids!     Dr. Gundry is a former cariologist, cardiac surgeon & researcher now an author with his own line of products & experimental clinic investigating diet.  I'd say use common sense!  

Forgot to mention video is available on Youtube! Again, it's titled The 4 COMMON MISTAKES We Make When Drinking Water! | Dr. Steven Gundry. Explains diuretic effect drinking too much water has on your electrolytes, which impacts blood production and hence platelets too. Great discussion on water for those with ITP. Highly recommended!

Vancouver 40, 
Does Dr Grundy present a current  and appropriate  evidence base to back up what he is saying? Personally I would be very wary .

abbylangernutrition.com/dr-steven-gundry-review-factchecking-his-claims/

Agreed with your opinion that with all advice, it is important to question the statements for validity and to personally verify them. I understand to be a registered Cardiologist, extensive professional education is required, as well as regulatulation from external and independant medical professionals. With over 45 years of Dr. Gundry practicing medicine, I'm inclined to believe Dr. Gundry is speaking from experience through his practice and the education he received. Next step is testing of course and personally verifying. I saw with my own experience that it helped my thrombocytopenia and hence my wanting to share on this forum for others to potentially consider for their own situation. In my situation, adjusting my water intake was not a dramatic step but did seem to help considerably. Wishing everyone strong platelets!