What Is the Ideal White Blood Cell Count?

The longer I was vegan and started exercising every day the lower my white blood cell count became. My doctor wondered why so she sent me to a hematologist who after running every test couldn't come up with a reason. NO ONE asked me a single thing about my diet. I'm so sick of doctors knowing nothing about nutrition.

OMG i almost cry reading my lab result for the 3rd time my wbc is always so low around 3. Im so afraid that i hv cancer of something but then i read comments here, thank you guys!!!!! I fee better

I just looked mine up, I got WBC of 3.4. I'm a 44y/o nonsmoking, non-drinking, vegan & follow as much of Dr Gregors advice as I can.

2.8 for me and don’t remember when I was sick since I cut out meat, dairy and processed food and ate whole food plant base.

This video has me relieved, wow! I had a WBC count of 3.95 and the doctor had me so worried. This is my healthiest year so far, with no medication at all, not even simple painkillers, yet the doctor thinks I have a problem. I've never done the test before so I can't tell if it has changed or not. I feel good.

I REALLY wish physicians were given nutritional studies…so many are so quick to run test test test and NEVER ask about lifestyle! My WBC for the past 3 years have been hovering btwn 2.7-2.8. NO ONE asked me about my diet! Thank you so much!!

I’ve been in the 3.0 to 3.7 range my whole life and I eat meat but I also excersise 6 days a week and I hardly eat any processed foods. Plus I don’t drink or smoke. The average American does not fall into that category, thus the range of 4.5-10

2.9 for me... haven't been sick in over a year

Wow. My WBC was 4.0 and was flagged as low. I was worried! Thanks Dr. Gregor :)

Brilliant research! Thank you Dr. Greger! Now I'm going to celebrate my low, low, low WBC!🎉 Great news!! You're the best!! Cheers to exercise & a whole food plant based diet! 🌿🌎💚

Wow! This is a life changing information seriously. My husband's doctor said his white blood cell count is at a lower side so she is worried and got us worried so much. I have not seen any information like this anywhere. I feel so relieved and at the same time, so disappointed at how most of doctors have no idea about what is going on. Thank you so much Dr. Michael!

My latest WBC was 2.5! 🎉 I've been vegetarian since I was 16, so it's always been "low". Now that I'm 49 years old, WFPB vegan for many years, exercise regularly, and don't drink alcohol, it's even lower. Plus, after much Google researching, I'm learning that people of African descent, especially West Africans, tend to have much lower WBC and neutrophil counts than those of European descent. So, 2.5 is perfect, fine, and healthy and I'm not dying of some mystery disease! 😂 So thankful we have Dr. Greger!!! ❤😊

Definately a connection to diet & exercise. In May of 2021 I became concerned about Covid inactivity, weight gain and high triglycerides. So, decided change was in order. Went full-on Keto, intermittent fasting (16/8) and walking one hour every day. Triglycerides dropped from 170s to 40s, white count also went down from 4.9 to between 2.9 - 3.8 ….All with good energy, great sleep & return to college weight at 70+ yrs old.

Amazing information and explanation. Many thanks to you Sir.

I was recently sent to a blood specialist to run further tests because they were alarmed with my low white blood cell count. I was freaking out because I was in a waiting room with a lot of cancer patients, too many to count. They asked me all these cancer related questions... I conclude that I am Vegan and simply healthy 😊

Very interesting and informative! Thank you!

I used to smoke, drink and eat trash food in the university about 5 years ago. Then a friend got cancer and I decided this was not the way I wanted to go I did hours of research on the internet on how to prevent cancer and heart disease from a young age hoping to undo some of the damage I did to my body. My first ever blood work at 22 Yo had a WBC of 8.2. I stumbled upon Dr Greger's site about 3 years ago started following a plant based diet quit many bad habits smoking and drinking... I just turned 27 and went for a full blood work test... WBC is 5.02 everything else on optimal or close to optimal levels. Glad to see my body was able to heal... feeling better than ever. Thanks to Dr Grege for this very valuable videos.

There's a lot of angles to this story and I wish Dr. Greger would go into more detail on this in either his blog or a future video. Definitely, low WBC could be of concern to some folks and always they should seek out a qualified doctor's guidance on their own situation. That said, here is my story. I was a typical SAD (Standard American Diet == Meat) eater for my first 50+ years and had all the bad side effects of that lifestyle. My WBC on my annual CBCs were consistently in 3.7 - 4.5 range. The 3.x's always worried me, but my docs said it's fine at that level. About 3+ years ago, I gave up meat entirely and moved to a complete WFPB / Vegan diet and have never felt better. But, when I started getting back my CBC results, it terrified me. My first WBC after a year was 3.5, then 3.1, then (yikes 2.8!). So, I began investigating everywhere I could and of course, Dr. Greger has some great resources. So does Dr. Klaper (another WFPB doc), who in one video states that 2.8 and so on is not unusual for LT Vegans. And he gets asked by Hematologists - so this tells you how poorly this information is circulating out there. Another resource I found in my search said some folks just have a genetic tendency to have lower WBCs. This sounded interesting so I polled my siblings, who are the complete opposite of WFPB eaters. Sure enough - same #'s as I used to have - 3.5, 3.7, 4.1 etc. So, low or under the usual guidelines - and that as regular meat eaters. Last piece - and it's kinda funny. One year I was at a conference and had to grab a quick lunch. I was hungry and the menu ( I thought !) said "almost chicken sandwich". It was good, so I had two of them. Turns out, I read it wrong - it WAS chicken. Uggh! Two days later, I had my annual physical w/ CBC. My WBC had shot up from 3.1 to 3.7, I am guessing from the meat. A year later, back to sub 3.0 again. Anyway, take this as just my personal experience, but I sure wish one of the widely followed research docs would do a deeper dive on this, taking into consideration there are genetic tendencies for some folks to start at much lower WBC's than others, so when they drop down 25% from their meat eating days, they go down to these levels that look scary on paper. While the majority of Vegan folks drop similarly from a higher value and are not flagged as too low.

Hi, Could you also add the links to the studies and or paper you used in the video? It would be great to do reviews and check the sources.. Thank you.

Just great!