We have all been aware since we were young how important blood is for the body. I’ve recently been trying to keep up with donating once ever 56 days, as recommended, because it can give me a short break out of my busy day and make me feel good about helping someone. Studies are now showing that this hour process to give blood can not only save other lives but also help to improve your own. American Red Cross reports that over 41,000 blood donations are needed daily. Of the 1.6 million individuals diagnosed with cancer last year, many will likely need to be given blood during chemotherapy. Another 70,000 affected by sickle-cell disease will frequently need blood transfusions. Of the estimated 38% eligible Americans, less than 10% donate each year.
One of many significant benefits in donating blood is that each donor is required to partake in a brief checkup before donating. This process will often include taking your temperature, pulse, blood pressure, blood-iron level and hemoglobin level. A sample of every donor’s blood is also sent for testing for infectious diseases like HIV, syphilis and Hepatitis B before it is able to be used in a hospital. The process is also confidential, so only you will be notified if you are in fact sick without even knowing.
An interesting study also resurfaced the idea that an excessive amount of iron can create a risk to one’s health, more specifically regarding acute myocardial infarction and coronary disease. Donating blood is often connected to balancing iron levels and allowing better blood flow. Individuals studied a previous experiment of 2,682 men in Europe who had all recorded any acute myocardial infarctions (classified as insufficient data, no AMI, prolonged chest pain, possible AMI, or definite AMI) between January of 1993 and December of 1995. Information was retrieved from Red Cross about who had donated blood in the previous 24 months. Various risk factors were checked, including smoke exposure, cholesterol, family history of coronary disease, etc.
Their results showed that 153 of 2,682 men had donated blood at least once in the preceding 24 months. Of the 153 men, only one male was confronted with an AMI, which is a mere 0.7% of donors. Of the 2,529 other males, 316 experienced an AMI, which is 12.5% of non-donors. This data is extremely strong and somewhat surprising. While the sample size of donors was significantly less than the sample size of non-donors, the evidence cannot be ignored. While one may argue that those who donate blood are often more health conscious and in the hospital less, this study provides numerous tables showing their results after attempting to take into consideration confounding factors so as to avoid any doubted correlation. The confounding factors considered range from biological factors like age and oxygen uptake to behavioral risk factors like cigarette exposure and arsenic intake and even to psychological factors like depression, social isolation and cynical hostility.
While I knew donating blood was healthy, I was oblivious to just how much I may be benefitting my body. Not only does one donation save 3 lives, but donating may lower my risk of AMI over 80%!
To respond to you, Gabby, I wanted to first say thank you for bringing the issue to my attention as it was something that I had never really considered before. After going through attached citation, I think that while I’m sure the FDA has the best interest for everyone, it is unfair to homosexual males that simply want to help. I can understand with tattoos and piercings because that is a choice made and is only a temporary restriction for the individual, but I personally see homosexuality not as a choice but just a part of the person. I think the system can be improved by simply allowing homosexual males to donate unless he knows for a fact that he has HIV/AIDS. The blood is tested for the disease in all donations anyway, so it is no more trouble for homosexual males to be added to the group. Regarding the risk that 1 per 2 million units have passes HIV/AIDS screening while it does in fact have the disease, I think that it is unavoidable and there is always risks with every medical procedure. Patients in need of blood are aware of the risks but the possibility is very small and the reward of the blood transfusion is very high, as Andrew discussed in class. I was also curious about your take on the whole thing?
Your post was very thorough, and it made me want to ask you a question based on what you have learned already. You say that one donation can save three lives, which is a lot. But more blood is needed every day, and there is currently a ban on homosexual men from giving blood. This suggests that the FDA is banning gay men from donating blood because of the risk of HIV/AIDS. But why can’t these men get tested first to see if they can donate? This is a problem that’s even prominent at Penn State. We talk student activity fees from all of our students, but students who are gay, have gotten a tattoo in the last year, travel internationally, or were present in England during the Mad Cow Disease scare are not allowed to participate in ALL activities, such as donating blood to the Red Cross Club. This isn’t Penn State’s fault, and it’s not even Red Cross’s fault — these are FDA regulations that we have to abide by. I want to know from you: Do you think allowing gay men who test negative for HIV/AIDS and other diseases should be allowed to give blood? Would it save more lives?
Here are the FDA regulations about it, check it out and let me know what you think: http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/BloodBloodProducts/QuestionsaboutBlood/ucm108186.htm
You’ve inspired me to donate blood! My dad donates blood occasionally, but I never have. It would have been informative if you talked about different blood types and what makes them unique. Here is a link about blood types: http://www.redcrossblood.org/learn-about-blood/blood-types
I think it’s funny it’s an established fact that blood is essential to survival, when our founding fathers, regarded as some of the greatest men, believed that blood was meant to leave the body. In fact George Washington died from complications he suffered after requesting to bleed him when he was suffering from pneumonia. Here
Loved the post because i have given blood twice and want to keep continuing because i want to continue to save lives. To expand your blog post you could take about the different types of ways you can donate like you can donate your plasmas, which is used for people in critical situations, and also the the downside of it for reasons why giving blood or plasmas is not for everyone. Here’s the link:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/122888-dangers-donating-blood-plasma/