Health Day News, May 5, 2007 Men and women with above-normal white blood cell counts could face an increased risk of death at an earlier age, particularly from cardiovascular disease, a new study suggests. People with normal white cell counts may not be out of danger, either, since individuals on the high end of the normal range were also at increased risk of illness and death, the team of Italian and American researchers said. The findings are published in the May 8 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Generated by the bone marrow and spread throughout the body, white blood cells (WBC) -- also called leukocytes -- are the immune's system key weapon against infectious disease. In the absence of disease, they normally make up just one percent of a person's blood. But Dr. James S. Goodwin, professor of geriatrics and director of the Sealy Center of Aging at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, isn't convinced. "The good news is, that as this study shows, a rather substantial decline in WBC counts from around 1960 to 2000," he said. "It goes well with other research showing that there's been a general improvement in health over the last half of the 20th century in the Western world." But Goodwin believes that, "from the perspective of the individual patient, this observational study suggests nothing specific that should be done differently. It is interesting from a scientific perspective. But for patients, it is not particularly important and has no clinical relevance."  (This story appeared widely in national and international print and electronic media.)