Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) is a kind of blood test done by professional laboratory technicians to determine how fast your red blood cells (erythrocytes) settles at the bottom of a test tube within an hour. In normal healthy conditions, the erythrocytes' rate of settling is slow. If you have high ESR level, what will happen is erythrocytes form a cluster at a high rate. That high rate indicates inflammation which is an immune response of the body. In cases of arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, vasculitis infections or injury, inflammation happens. Thus, ESR is used to tell if you have an underlying disease.

Top Symptoms and Causes of High ESR

A higher ESR reading signifies the presence of diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, cancers, systemic lupus erythematosus, autoimmune diseases, or systemic lupus erythematosus. Below are reference guidelines and explanations about the top causes and symptoms of ESR.

1. Major Symptoms

• Fever: Fever can be defined as an abnormal rise in body temperature. It is one common symptom found in different infection cases. In cases when your ESR is very high, you will experience a high fever. Any time you have a fever, that should signify all is not well with you.

• Joint Pain: As noted above, one condition that causes a rise in ESR is arthritis. Some type of arthritis causes joint inflammation that results in joint pain. When you are suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, gout, or lupus erythematosus, you will experience a high ESR.

• Headache: Sometimes it is hard to tell the cause of a headache. A number of infections or diseases have a headache as a common symptom. Meningitis, a life-threatening disease, can cause severe headaches. Secondly, lupus is a condition that causes body inflammation which results in high ESR. Lastly, for a senior individual who experiences visual issues due to vasculitis or temporal arteritis, high ESR symptoms are witnessed.

• Fatigue: Fatigue is normal for human beings, and it can be associated with high ESR. Work tiredness is not the only case of fatigue. Pregnant women, cancer patients, and those suffering from anemia or body inflammation are likely to complain of fatigue. If you happen to take an ESR test when fatigued, you will realize it is high.

2. Major Causes

The following are some of the causes of ESR.

• Common Conditions: There are common issues that happen and result in high ESR. Some might be normal and necessary conditions while other are common diseases. Some of these common conditions are kidney disease, pregnancy, temporal arteritis, thyroid disease, anemia, lymphoma and old age.

• Autoimmune Disorders: A human body has an immune system used to fight disease and infection-causing pathogens. If that immune system is affected, erythrocyte clustering rate rises. Some of the immune disorders that cause high ESR are bigger cell arteritis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythematosus, hyperfibrinogenemia, primary macroglobulinemia and necrotizing vasculitis.

• Some Types of Infection: When pathogens or disease-causing agents get introduced into your body, a disruption of normal body functioning happens. If your have high ESR level, what will happen is the infection causing pathogens alters the normal functioning of the body. Some of the infections are bone infection, tuberculosis, skin infections, system infection, heart infections and rheumatic fever.

• Medication Side Effects: Medications are vital but sometimes they can have severe side effects. In other words, as the medications act on pathogens, inflammation can happen. Some of the medications that cause elevation of ESR are dextran, blood pressure medication, rheumatoid arthritis medications, theophylline (used for bronchitis, asthma and lung diseases), birth control contraceptives and antioxidants.

Best Tips to Reduce ESR in Blood

If you are concerned about how to reduce ESR in blood, below is a reference guide that can help you understand how it goes. Additionally, you must consult with your doctor for more specific advice.

After realizing you have high ESR level, the best treatment to lower its level will depend on the cause. Your doctor must first diagnose the cause of high ESR. After the cause is discovered, a treatment plan will be worked out.

• Cancer Diet

In the event that a diagnosis identifies cancer as the high ESR case, a plan to deal with it should be sorted immediately. Remember, cancer causes abnormal cell growth. Introducing of antioxidant foodstuff to your diet will help suppress the cancer cells' growth. Veggies and fruits like pepper, grapes, cruciferous, turmeric, garlic, carrots, sweet potatoes, rosemary, nuts, kale and others are the best to use.

• Inflammation Diet

Diet is the most essential factor when fighting body infections. The already named cancer diet is the same you need for inflammation reduction. Additionally, you might need to include olive oils and foodstuffs that provide omega 3 fatty acid in your diet.

On the other hand, you need to avoid saturated fatty acids, refined sugar, and trans fats. These types of food increase the inflammation responsible for high ESR.

• Keep Hydrated

For better body functioning ability, you need to be hydrated. Medically it is advisable to take one to two liters of water a day. Regarding ESR, drinking enough water a day will help reduce inflammation thus reducing high ESR levels. If you are breastfeeding, very active at work, or you are pregnant, you will need more than two liters of water per day.

• Exercise

Exercise is vital for a healthy body. Exercising for 20 to 30 minutes a day keeps your body active and the sweating is key to reducing inflammation within your blood. If you manage to reduce inflammation, then be sure you will have dealt with high ESR.

Keeping a healthy body requires commitment. Hygiene, early treatment of diseases, dieting and exercises are much needed to lower one's ESR level. All you have to do is to consult a doctor and follow the above reference guideline. With that, you will get rid of high ESR and live a comfortable life.