The Nurturing Well by: Jill Starbuck
September marks ITP awareness month, a perfect time to introduce this rare disorder and support its sufferers. ITP stands for Immune Thrombocytopenia Purpura, a rare bleeding disorder. A person with ITP has an overactive immune system that attacks and destroys its own platelets. Oftentimes, the spleen is the biggest culprit in depleting platelets. Why is ITP a big deal? Because we need platelets to assist in blood clotting and wound healing. ITP patients can reach such low levels of platelets that they risk spontaneous bleeding. Two types of ITP exist: acute and chronic. The acute type typically occurs from a viral infection. This type generally lasts less than six months and is more common in children. The chronic type typically occurs in adults, but can also affect those younger. It lasts six months or longer—in many cases, for the rest of a patient’s life.
Typical symptoms of low platelets include blood blisters in the mouth, extreme fatigue, frequent bruising, nose bleeds, heavy menstrual cycles, and bleeding gums. Severe symptoms include brain hemorrhage and low gastrointestinal bleeding. However, many ITP patients are asymptomatic, which means they have no symptoms. Therefore, these patients find out about their disorder via a routine physical or a doctor’s visit for another ailment.
No cure exists for ITP. Patients may look healthy, but may be burdened with frequent blood draws and treatments. Often, the side effects from treatments are worse than the actual disorder. For some, removing the spleen provides relief and may cause remission. For others, no treatment works. Like many autoimmune disorders, medical experts do not know why the immune system reacts this way. Furthermore, since each ITP patient’s platelet numbers fluctuate differently and react differently to medications, the disorder is hard to study and control. Because of these issues, few statistics exist regarding the number of people who actually have the disorder and which treatments prove most effective. Studies estimate that approximately 9.5 out of every 100,000 people have ITP.
Chronic sufferers have to avoid contact sports or anything that puts them at risk of falling or injury that will incur spontaneous bleeding. Therefore, children who have this condition often cannot enjoy amusement park rides, gymnastics, football, and the like. Help raise awareness by learning more from the Platelet Disorder Support Association at www.pdsa.org. With more research and medical attention, maybe a cure or better insight to this disorder will help ITP patients so they can live a normal life again.
Jill Starbuck has 20 years of experience as a business writer, editor, and market research analyst. She is a certified health coach through the Integrative Institute of Nutrition and a certified running coach through the Road Runners Club of America. She is also the co-owner of a running business. She can be reached at jillstarbuck@hotmail.com.
