Common Symptoms of Spleen Problems
The body is an amazing thing, one that often provides warnings of impending issues such as symptoms of spleen problems. When something is happening inside the body to the spleen, you would expect to experience some very distinct symptoms. This could be from the development of illness or perhaps an injury the spleen sustained. The spleen is an important organ in the body, found in the upper area of the abdomen on the left-hand side. To ensure proper function of the circulatory and immune system, the spleen is critical.
For the circulatory system, this organ helps by filtering and even removing red blood cells within the bloodstream that have been damaged or are old. Additionally, the spleen builds up a reserve of fresh blood cells that would be used in an emergency. In other words, if you were to have a sudden or massive loss of blood, the reserve would kick in to keep you alive. Regarding the immune system, the spleen is capable of eliminating specific kings of bacteria harmful to the body.
Of all symptoms of spleen problems, the most common is abdominal pain. In fact, problems of the spleen are usually detected early because of this pain. The pain felt is the result of an inflamed and/or enlarged spleen associated with a variety of illnesses to include something relatively minor such as mononucleosis to something major as leukemia. Once the pain starts, it would be expected to radiate to the left shoulder and/or lower portion of the back.
Another of the common symptoms of spleen problems is ongoing infection. Whenever this organ becomes enlarged, the amount of white blood cells from the circulatory system being filtered is enormous. When this happens, white cells used to fight off bacteria and infection begins to decrease, which leads to ongoing infections. Making the problem even worse is that trying to filter out such huge amounts of white blood cells leads to excessive storage.
Anemia and heavy bleeding are also symptoms of spleen problems when the circulatory system malfunctions. Again, as the spleen becomes enlarged from eliminating too many red blood cells from blood being circulated throughout the body, blood will start to become thin and loses its ability to coagulate because platelet numbers have decreased. In this case, you would feel overly fatigued, have bouts of dizziness, and probably start to develop headaches as the result of oxygen rich blood being dramatically reduced.
If you were ever to experience symptoms of spleen problems, instead of guessing or taking a “wait and see” attitude, it would be worthwhile to be seen by your doctor. During your visit, the doctor would likely conduct several tests to include blood tests, physical examination, an MRI, and perhaps a CAT scan. With that, the doctor could detect if levels of red and white blood cells in the body are at normal levels or not. Depending on the outcome of tests, proper treatment would begin to help you feel better and achieve ultimate health.