Many conditions, lifestyle choices, medicines, and diseases interfere
with your ability to heal or fight infection. You may be at risk for a more
serious problem from your symptoms if you have any of the following. Be sure to
tell your health professional.
Conditions
- Age older than
60
- Anxiety
- Depression
- History of repeated
concussions or head injuries, such as with football or
boxing
- Pregnancy
- Previous brain
surgery
- Previous serious head injury that required hospital
admission or caused unconsciousness for longer than 5
minutes
- Problem that has been present since birth (congenital
problem)
Lifestyle choices
- Alcohol abuse or withdrawal
- Drug abuse or withdrawal
- Smoking or other tobacco use
Medicines
- Blood-thinning medications, such as warfarin
(Coumadin), enoxaparin (Lovenox), heparin, and aspirin
- Corticosteroids, such as prednisone
- Medications to prevent organ transplant rejection
- Medications used to treat cancer
(chemotherapy)
- Radiation therapy
Diseases
- Alzheimer's disease
- Amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS)
- Anemia
- Brain
tumor
- Cancer
- Diabetes
- Guillain-Barré
syndrome
- Heart disease
- Hemophilia
- High
blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV) infection
- Huntington's disease
- Idiopathic thrombocytopenic
purpura (ITP)
- Kidney disease
- Liver
disease
- Lupus
- Ménière's disease or other diseases of
the ear
- Multiple sclerosis
- Parkinson's
disease
- Peripheral neuropathy
- Seizure disorder
- Stroke or transient ischemia attack (TIA)
- Thyroid
disease
- Vascular disease
