In this post, I would explore the possible personality types of people with high erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in their blood test results. If you find yourself having higher than normal ESR rates, but the rest of your blood results is normal, you may want to read on further.
When I was in the corporate world, I often felt unwell inside. So from time to time, I would go for routine blood and urine test with labs. Pay about a few hundred bucks for a comprehensive blood and urine test.
And each time, the comment I get from the lab report was higher than normal ESR rates. The rest like kidney, liver function, cholesterol, RA factor, etc came back all within normal range. Once I even paid extra for cancer marker tests which also came back normal. Note: I do not have my reports with me but I would try to update the readings once I get excess to the files.
I used to wonder why my ESR readings were so high. When I asked, none of the physicians (a doctor would always be there to explain and summarise the result) was able to give me an answer as to why it is high.
Until I started looking deeply into mind body connection, on how personality traits, emotions and how we deal with stress contributes to the outer health symptoms manifestation in our body. And when I meet with a few individuals who also told me they have high ESR rates….I was able to come out with insights.
This may or may not be applicable to you. I apologise if I am wrong. Do note that high ESR rate could also be an early symptom of certain cancers or auto immune disease. Last year, I developed rapid onset of rheumatoid arthritis which is an auto immune disease. Fortunately I was able to halt the progression of the inflammation and damage on my joints through identifying the emotional triggers and dealing with them.
If you or someone you know have high ESR readings, could most of the attributes below be applicable to you:
1. Explosive temper /reactive personality
When someone does something that press on all the wrong buttons, you have problem containing the annoyance and anger. Often you would see to it that the person knows exactly how (angry) you feel. You have difficulty suppression your anger and if you cannot direct it to the intended recipient, you would need to explode out to other people. Which leads to point below:
2. A lot of inner anger/ self resentment
Chronic inflammation is an outer manifestation of internal rage or anger. Often people who have explosive tempers are mainly angry with themselves but are not addressing these feelings from the start till they are out of touch with their feelings. With time, these manifest to outer rage.
In my life, I’ve never seen anyone with an explosive temper who are genuinely comfortable and happy with their lives. Even I myself would admit that at the point of my time where I was the most unhappy, it was also the time where my anger and temper were the hardest to control or contain.
3. Unable to let go and move on/ persistent stubbornness (not the right kind)
Red blood cells clump together in cases of people with high ESR rate. It is not moving or flowing freely. It could reflect the same manifestation in the overall way of leading life (red blood cells signify life), like not moving forward freely and persistently clinging to certain views.
Can changing one’s attitude have an impact on one’s health?
Of course. Often an ailment is our body’s way of telling us that the choices we make are making us unhappy. For example, I used to suffer from debilitating pain when I was working in the corporate world and when I first tried to adapt myself in becoming a caregiver. So much so that I needed to see my chiropractor for an adjustment to help me feel better.
It has been more than 3 years since I become a full time caregiver. I’ve managed to make peace with myself and settle comfortably into my role. I am so comfortable that I’ve gained some weight and I am now at the heaviest that I’ve ever been in my life. I am much more relaxed and learn not to sweat the small stuff.
With the change, I started noticing that a lot of the body pain- ie neck, shoulder, lower back and knee pain had ebbed from debilitating to just a mild discomfort. Considering I am heavier than previously, and I am also more physically active in chores, it surprises me why my back and shoulders are no longer killing me.
Would there be potential danger if we ignore the high ESR readings?
It is no good to have high ESR rate. Because this means our body is under chronic inflammation and constantly in a fight mode. When this condition is left to fester, it may lead to development of auto immune disease and certain types of cancer. At the very least, one would suffer a lot of joint pains, arthritis and conditions like gout.
For example in my case, I suddenly had rapid onset of rheumatoid arthritis, which is an auto immune disease.
Furthermore, if we have some of the personality traits described above, it would bring us nothing but misery and we would turn people away from our lives. People would leave us because they got hurt or insulted by our actions, and it may drive these wrongly held beliefs that ‘ya that person is like that. Everyone is bad inside and it is better to protect ourselves’, not understanding that the reaction we have towards other people have a strong influence on the outcome of our relationship with them.
