Give Me Your Blood Its Good For You.

Hello, this topic came in my mind as I tried to donate this Thursday but arrived too late. I try to donate on a regular basis at my regular Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center. I think it just an easy way to give something back without giving money and it is not much of a sacrifice because it only takes about 10-15 minutes. I have never felt any adverse effects so it’s pretty simple every time I go. Anyways I have thought about that just about every two to three months I give about a pint of blood if I am donating whole blood, if not that I donate what they call double red blood cells. I began to wonder what the long-term effects are. Obviously, not many people lose 4 pints of blood a year or on a regular basis. Some have told me it has benefits and some have said it can cause issues

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The first thing I consider is red blood cells. We rely on these to give us our oxygen throughout our body and obviously a lack of these would decrease your performance. I believe it is even shown that athlete tend to have higher levels of red blood cells vs the average person. From what I remember from basic bio, our red blood cells have to be replaced anyways due to the fact that they do not contain mitochondria. A quick google search tells me that it takes only seven days for red blood cells to mature. The red blood cells we have also last about 120 days in our system. Based on the information on the Gulf Coast Blood Center site and experience they ask you to wait about two months or 56 days before the next donation and for red blood cells about 112 days which is about four months. Since the double red blood cell donation is more focused on obtaining red blood cells from your system and blood cells have about a life cycle of about 120 days it seems that they want your body to replenish completely. Platelets and plasma respectively only need 3 day and 28 days respectfully. These are more fluid based except that plasma has other materials such as white blood cells and other nutrients as well.

So next I consider a major building material of red blood cells to function which is Iron. It also plays a role in some enzyme structures or reactions as well. Bottom line without iron we are not able to have red cells that function as well. Another name for a lack of iron is or red blood cells is called anemia. Comparing donors it is found in one study that 27.1% and 16.4% of women and men had an iron deficiency.  I honestly have never seen any issues with my iron amount as they test me each time I donate it stays in about the same range. My friend on the other hand actually does have some low iron and says she eats an iron-rich meal before she donates, and sometimes still gets turned away but sometimes she can donate.

Looking into more information I find that it can take an average of 12-18 weeks for men and 14-24 for women to regain iron stores in the body to normal if iron deficiency is found. I did dig into mention of white blood cells or other blood materials when looking through articles besides the fact that they are present. I did find articles stating that certain correlations such as iron, cancer, and cardiovascular disease are not presently obvious for those who donate blood. This information seems to be valuable not only for people who donate but possibly for storage and upkeep of donated blood which contains the cells needed to get into others.

Sources:

http://www.giveblood.org/about-donating/donation-types/

Iron deficiency in whole blood donors

Gary M. Brittenham

Donation Frequency, Iron Loss, and Risk of Cancer Among Blood Donors
Gustaf Edgren , Marie Reilly , Henrik Hjalgrim

Blood donation and iron deficiency
A. S. Rigas, O. B. Pedersen