Low Lymphocyte Levels - Help?

[munchkinette]

I finally got all my blood test results. The only abnormalities were low lymphocytes (15% with normal being 26% - 46%) and just barely higher than normal neutrophil levels.

After googling I discovered that low lymphocytes happened from a few things: HIV (yikes!), a couple other immune system problems, and something related to corticosteroid use. It's this last one that I don't fully understand, but it probably relates to me. My asthma was really bad around Xmas time, so the doctor started me on a Symbacort inhaler. Can anyone give me some insight as to what happens? I see there is some kind of link, but I don't fully understand some of what I'm reading. Regardless of the inhaler, I've always taken a long time to heal.

[trents]

You take cortico steriods to reduce inflamation in your airway passages. Inflamation is an immune system reponse designed to kill foreign invaders. Normally its a good thing but it is bad when the body mistakenly detects harmless substances as invaders, as is the case with asthma and anaphylaxys (i.e., people who die from bee stings, peanuts, etc.). Cortico steriods reduce inflamation by suppressing the bodies producition of invader fighting cells like leukocytes and lymphocytes, i.e. the white blood cells and relatied infection fighters. Hope this helps.