Drinking my own blood

Factual Questions
1

Say if I decided that, starting tomorrow, every day I would cut myself and drink a litre of my own blood. How should I supplement my diet so that my health stays relatively normal? Should I be getting more iron? more fluids? more calories in general?

Disclaimer: I’m not about to start drinking my own blood.

2

[QUOTE=Shalmanese]
Say if I decided that, starting tomorrow, every day I would cut myself and drink a litre of my own blood. How should I supplement my diet so that my health stays relatively normal? Should I be getting more iron? more fluids? more calories in general?

Disclaimer: I’m not about to start drinking my own blood.
[/QUOTE]

Get in line

3

A liter of your own blood a day?
5 liters in 5 days seems a pretty hefty load on your bone marrow rbc production.
It’d probably kill you.

4

generally speaking your stomach does not like having blood in it. bleeding into your stomach can cause violent vomiting. i’d venture to say you’d have a difficult time drinking an entire L of blood without vomiting.

5

[QUOTE=kinoons]
generally speaking your stomach does not like having blood in it.
[/QUOTE]

Aren’t there Africans who drink cow blood as a major part of their diet?

6

I would think your vomiting because of an ulcer, not because of the blood.

7

Don’t forget you will need folate and B12 to make all those new red cells. It isn’t just the iron.

8

Maybe half a pint a day, but a liter? I don’t think you could handle that much blood loss without causing a medical emergency.

9

[QUOTE=groman]
Maybe half a pint a day, but a liter? I don’t think you could handle that much blood loss without causing a medical emergency.
[/QUOTE]

Err, to clarify you could probably handle a liter, and maybe another liter the next day, but my guess is that on the third day you’d pass out while bleeding yourself.

I am not a doctor, just a WAG based on massive bleeding/donation experience

10

nausea and vomiting are common when blood is present in the stomach. one of the common causes is a nosebleed. if the blood drains down your throat into your stomach (ie – head tilted back) vomiting frequently occures. ulcers or esophagial bleeding also can drain into the stomach and vomiting ensues.

here’s a link to that info
http://familydoctor.org/132.xml

as far as blood being in someone’s diet, I don’t know if animal blood makes difference, or if your stomach can become accustomed to the presence of blood.