Four Unexpected
Benefits of Donating Blood
July 28, 2014
Story at-a-glance
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Repeated blood donations may help your blood to flow better,
reducing viscosity, and possibly helping to limit damage to
the lining of your blood vessels, which should result in
fewer arterial blockages
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Every blood donor gets a “mini physical” prior to donation
to check blood pressure, hemoglobin, and temperature, along
with testing for 13 infectious diseases
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People who volunteer for altruistic reasons, i.e. to help
others rather than themselves, live longer than those who
volunteer for more self-centered reasons
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For each unit of blood donated, you lose about one-quarter
of a gram of iron, which is one of the best ways to avoid
the health risks associated with iron overload
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Your body has a limited capacity to excrete iron, so it can
easily build up in and damage organs like your liver, heart,
and pancreas; many adult men and postmenopausal women are at
risk for health problems associated with excess iron
By Dr. Mercola
Most people donate blood because they want to help others, and,
indeed, donating blood a single time may help save the lives of up
to three people.1
Still, less than 10 percent of the US population eligible to donate
blood actually does so every year.
Why don’t more people donate blood on a regular basis? According
to the American Red Cross, the most common reasons given by people
who don’t give blood are because they “never thought about it” or
“don’t like needles.”
It may be time to start thinking about it today, or
muster up the courage to overcome your fear of needles, as giving
blood doesn’t only help others… it helps you too.
Four Benefits of Giving Blood
Someone in the US needs blood every two seconds,2
so if you’re up for doing a good deed, donating blood is a
phenomenal choice. More than 41,000 blood donations are needed each
day, and because blood cannot be manufactured, the only way
to supply this need is via generous blood donors. It’s certainly an
altruistic act… but it’s also one that offers important yet
little-discussed benefits.
1. Balance Iron Levels in Your Blood
In my view, this is clearly the most important reason. For
each unit of blood donated, you lose about one-quarter of a gram
of iron.
You may at first think this is a bad thing, since too little
iron may lead to fatigue, decreased immunity, or iron-deficiency
anemia, which can be serious if left untreated. This is common
in children and premenopausal women.
But what many people fail to realize is that too much
iron can be worse, and is actually far more common than iron
deficiency (especially in men and postmenopausal women).
So for many, the fact that donating blood helps to rid your
body of excess iron is one of the greatest benefits it offers.
It has been long known that menstruating women have fewer heart
attacks. This was previously thought to be due to hormones but
is now thought to be due to lower iron levels.
Similar to premenopausal women, blood donors have been found
to be 88 percent less likely to suffer from a heart attack,3
and this is thought to be due to its effects on iron levels.
Researchers explained:
“Because high body iron stores have been suggested as
a risk factor for acute myocardial infarction, donation of
blood could theoretically reduce the risk by lowering body
iron stores.”
Interestingly, in a study published in the April 2013 issue
of American Journal of Public Health,4
researchers found that
statin cholesterol-lowering drugs improved cardiovascular
outcomes at least partially by countering the pro-inflammatory
effects of excess iron stores.
In this study, the improved outcomes were associated with
lower ferritin (iron) levels but not with “improved” lipid
status. Researchers concluded iron reduction might be a safe and
low-cost alternative to statins, and according to logic this
means that donating your blood, which reduces iron, could
potentially help too.
2. Better Blood Flow
Do you know what a high-sugar diet, smoking, radio
frequencies, and other toxic electromagnetic forces, emotional
stress, anxiety, high cholesterol, and high uric acid levels do
to your blood?
All of these make your blood hypercoagulable, meaning it
makes it thick and slow moving, which increases your risk of
having a blood clot or stroke. Hypercoagulable blood contributes
to inflammation, because when your blood does not flow well,
oxygen can't get to your tissues.
For example, early (and some current) birth control pills
were notorious for causing heart attacks in women. One of the
mechanisms that cause this increased risk is that synthetic
estrogens and progesterones increase blood viscosity.
Repeated blood donations may help your blood to flow better,
possibly helping to limit damage to the lining of your blood
vessels, which should result in fewer arterial blockages. (Grounding
can also help to thin dangerously thick blood.) Phillip
DeChristopher, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Loyola University
Health System blood bank, told TIME:5
“What is clear is that blood donors seem to not be
hospitalized so often and if they are, they have shorter
lengths of stay… And they’re less likely to get heart
attacks, strokes, and cancers.”
3. You Get a Mini Physical
Every blood donor gets a “mini physical” prior to donation.
Your temperature will be checked along with your blood pressure,
pulse, and hemoglobin. Your blood will also be tested for 13
infectious diseases like HIV, hepatitis B and C, West Nile
Virus, and syphilis.
Donating blood is certainly not a replacement for medical
care, but it does give you a (free) glimpse into your health (as
well as notice if you’ve been exposed to an infectious disease
without knowing).
4. A Longer Life
People who volunteer for altruistic reasons, i.e. to help
others rather than themselves, appear to live longer than those
who volunteer for more self-centered reasons. Altruistic
volunteers enjoyed a significantly reduced risk of mortality
four years later according to one study,6
with the study’s lead author noting:7
“This could mean that people who volunteer with other
people as their main motivation may be buffered from
potential stressors associated with volunteering, such as
time constraints and lack of pay.”
What You Should Know About Excess Iron Levels
Iron is essential for life, as it is a key part of various
proteins and enzymes, involved in the transport of oxygen and the
regulation of cell growth and differentiation, among many other
uses.
One of the most important roles of iron is to provide hemoglobin
(the protein in red blood cells that contains iron at its core), a
mechanism through which it can bind to oxygen and carry it
throughout your tissues, as without proper oxygenation, your cells
quickly start dying.
However, because your body has a limited capacity to excrete
iron, it can easily build up in organs like your liver, heart, and
pancreas. This is dangerous because iron is a potent oxidizer and
can damage your body tissues contributing to serious health issues.
Cancer researchers have found evidence that bowel cancers are two to
three times more likely to develop when dietary iron is too high in
your body.8
High iron levels have also been linked to:
Cirrhosis |
Liver cancer |
Cardiac arrhythmias |
Type one diabetes |
Alzheimer's disease |
Bacterial and viral infections |
This is a personal issue for me, as getting my dad’s iron levels
checked saved his life 20 years ago. I discovered he had a
ferritin level close to 1,000. It was because he has
beta-thalassemia. With regular phlebotomies, his iron levels
normalized and now the only side effect he has is type 1
diabetes. His high iron
levels damaged his pancreatic islet cells triggering what is called
“bronze” diabetes, and so he requires the use of insulin.
I also inherited beta-thalassemia from him but thankfully, I am
able to keep my iron levels normal by removing about a pint of blood
a year. This is removed not all at once but over a few dozen
deposits. I screen myself with ferritin levels several times a year.
I also screened my patients with ferritin levels and noticed nearly
one-fourth of them had elevated levels. So I would strongly
encourage you and your family to be screened annually for this, as
it is SO MUCH easier to prevent iron overload than it is to treat
it.
Hemochromatosis is one of the most prevalent genetic diseases in
the US. The C282Y gene mutation is thought to be responsible for the
majority of hemochromatosis cases. It takes two inherited
copies of the mutation (one from your mother and one from your
father) to cause the disease (and even then only some people will
actually get sick). If you have just one mutation, you won’t become
ill but you will absorb slightly more iron than the rest of
the population, a trait that may have given people an advantage when
dietary sources of iron were scarce.
Have You Had a Ferritin Screen?
Checking your iron levels is easy and can be done with a simple
blood test called a serum ferritin test. I believe this is one of
the most important tests that everyone should have done on a regular
basis as part of a preventive, proactive health screen. The test
measures the carrier molecule of iron, a protein found inside cells
called ferritin, which stores the iron. If your ferritin levels are
low, it means your iron levels are also low.
The healthy range of serum ferritin lies between 20 and 80 ng/ml.
Below 20 is a strong indicator that you are iron deficient, and
above 80 suggests you have an iron surplus. The ideal range is
between 40-60 ng/ml. The higher the number over 100 the worse the
iron overload, with levels over 300 being particularly toxic. Levels
this high will eventually cause serious damage in nearly everyone
that sustains those levels long term.
Four Common Factors That Increase Your Risk of Iron Overload
People with hemochromatosis are not the only ones who may
accumulate more iron than is healthy. While premenopausal women who
are menstruating regularly rarely suffer from iron overload due to
the monthly loss of blood, most adult men and postmenopausal women
tend to be at a high risk, as they don't have a monthly blood loss
(one of the best ways you can get rid of excess iron is by
bleeding). Another common cause of excess iron is the regular
consumption of alcohol, which will increase the absorption of any
iron in your diet. For instance, if you drink wine with your steak,
you will likely be absorbing more iron than you need. Other
potential causes of high iron levels include:
- Cooking in iron pots or pans. Cooking acidic foods in these
types of pots or pans will cause even higher levels of iron
absorption.
- Eating processed food products like cereals and white breads
that are "fortified' with iron. The iron they use in these
products is inorganic iron, not much different than rust, and it
is far more dangerous than the iron in meat.
- Drinking well water that is high in iron. The key here is to
make sure you have some type of iron precipitator and/or a
reverse osmosis water filter.
- Taking multiple vitamins and mineral supplements, as both of
these frequently have iron in them.
If you find out that your iron levels are elevated or you have
hemochromatosis, donating your blood is the safest, most effective,
and most inexpensive approach to remedy this problem. If, for some
reason, a blood donor center is unable to accept your blood for
donation, you can obtain a prescription for therapeutic phlebotomy.
At the same time, you will want to be sure to avoid consuming excess
iron in the form of supplements, in your drinking water (well
water), from iron cookware, or in fortified processed foods.
Copyright 1997- 2014 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
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