# Drinking my own blood **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 23, 2006, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-my-own-blood/353822 "2006-04-23T03:29:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-my-own-blood/353822/1 "2006-04-23T03:29:31Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-my-own-blood/353822/2 "2006-04-23T03:36:43Z")
[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](http://groups.google.com/group/misc.health.alternative/browse_frm/thread/fd6a8cf53cabd4e1/34b1152388364d98?lnk=st&q=drinking++blood+health&rnum=1&hl=en#34b1152388364d98) ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-my-own-blood/353822/3 "2006-04-23T04:30:24Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![kinoons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-my-own-blood/353822/4 "2006-04-23T04:59:14Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-my-own-blood/353822/5 "2006-04-23T05:13:44Z")
[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? ---
**Author:** ![Melkor28](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Melkor28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melkor28)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-my-own-blood/353822/6 "2006-04-23T08:04:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Orignaly posted by **kinoons** : > _“bleeding into your stomach can cause violent vomiting”_ I would think your vomiting because of an ulcer, not because of the blood. ---
**Author:** ![gabriela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@gabriela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabriela)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-my-own-blood/353822/7 "2006-04-23T09:16:11Z")
Don’t forget you will need folate and B12 to make all those new red cells. It isn’t just the iron. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-my-own-blood/353822/8 "2006-04-23T09:20:19Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-my-own-blood/353822/9 "2006-04-23T09:21:25Z")
[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 ---
**Author:** ![kinoons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-my-own-blood/353822/10 "2006-04-23T11:47:37Z")
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](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.