Does anybody know if there are any long-term effects of giving blood? Have any studies been done to determine if people who regularly donate have increased risk of health ailments or other conditions?
Actually, there was a recent study that showed that people who donate frequently have a decreased incidence of heart attack and stroke. I do not know the details though. Keep on giving!
I heard that the more frequently you do it, the more it increases a man’s penis size. I also heard that women get bigger boobs and tighter butts.
Anyway, keep giving.
What are one’s chances of getting AIDS from donating blood?
Exactly zero. There has never been a recorded instance of receiving the HIV virus from giving blood. And logically, there shouldn’t be. One gets HIV and AIDS from receiving tainted blood, most often from sex or from needle-sharing.
Each needle used to draw blood for donation is used only once.
Livin’ on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine
I wouldn’t be willing to bet my life on that.
What if the cheap bastards decide to save $$$ and recycle?
If you want to adopt that attitude, you can just assume that in every restaurant in America, someone is going to put AIDS-infected blood into your food or some other nonsense like that.
They don’t. Ever. Not once. To repeat, no one has ever contracted HIV or AIDS from giving blood.
If you’re stuck on the self-interest thing, consider this: The first time someone does get AIDS from donating, the whole train stops. No more blood. It is very much in the self interest of the blood collection agencies to ensure that that never occurs.
I swear to Ghod, sometimes I think it should be illegal to give blood to anyone who doesn’t have a donor card or a valid medical excuse not to carry one.
Livin’ on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine
I totally agree with you, Manhattan, but the idea is definately out there that there is a risk.
I have no real idea why, but I suppose it amounts to: “if I don’t let anyone stick a needle in me, then I don’t have to worry about where it might have been.”
Sounds like education is still the answer to fear.
Lessee, I’m approaching 7 gallons now, and the only effect of giving blood long-term is more lives saved. Incidentally, I wear all my gallon pins on my motorcycle jacket, carry my donor card, and am a registered bone marrow & organ donor. With all that going for me, if I high side off my bike one day I figure I’m a shoo in for a transfusion! 
VB
When you are lost, or in doubt, run in circles! Scream & shout!
The 7 gallons (well done, incidentally) obviously wasn’t all from 1 sitting. When I give blood, or even have a couple of vials filled for sampling (I handle nasty stuff and have to be tested annually) I get light-headed. I am young, healthy and, despite being tall, have good circulation. But I’d be lying if I said that the pseudo-nausea wasn’t somewhat of a deterent.
Since this is an excellenct time to donate again (a number of donor campaigns are running in my quaint little hamlet as we speak) I got to wondering about how much I could give in one sitting and and how long it took me to replenish my own supply. Since there are time limits between lettings I asssumed there may be risks to my health if I continually gave until it hurts. The typical AIDS/HIV/Cooties stigma aside and understanding that I wouldn’t “run myself dry”, what the heck happens when I need some blood down the road and my blood-production centers are overworked???
Never given blood, have you?
The needle they use to draw blood comes in a sealed paper package. The needle they use to prick your finger to get a blood sample is in a sealed paper package. When they’re finished, they deposit said needles in a bio-hazard waste container.
You can get other nasties from re-using needles that have been around a lot longer and are easier to detect, like hepatitis (sp?). And a dirty needle will infect the blood you’re giving as well as yourself. Even from a purely economic point of view, a blood center wouldn’t last long if it got a reputation for tainted blood.
grumble, grumble I don’t mind if a person doesn’t want to give blood, but stop making up silly paranoid urban legends to justify yourself ** grumble, grumble **
A lot less than you are allowed to give, and well before you are allowed to give again. I asked this once, and while I don’t remember the exact answer, I do remember that these people err way on the side of caution.
The standard amount of blood collected is about 500 ml, & is often referred to as a pint. This represents ~ 10% of the blood in circulation. The volume of fluid is usually restored within 6-12 hours. The proteins are replaced within 48 hours. Platelets & white blood cells are replaced within 3-7 days. Red blood cells are replaced within 3-10 weeks.
You can typically donate every 8 weeks. Before being accepted as a donor, you will be screened to make sure that you have enough red blood cells for yourself & to help the eventual recipient. If your red blood cell count is too low, you will not be allowed to donate then & will be advised to try again in 4 weeks. If you are still low, you should see you doctor.
Women often are unable to donate this often because of the combined effects of menstruation, pregnancies, and blood donation on iron stores. Taking iron pills can help with this.
Did you know:
That the unit of blood you give is processed & different components are separated to do more good to more people?
A single unit of blood can provide:
Packed red blood cells to restore oxygen-carrying capability.
Platelets to stop bleeding in cancer patients.
Clotting factors for hemophiliacs.
That demand increases, unfortunately at this time of year due to more auto crashes, while supply decreases, as even faithful regular donors get extra busy. Y2K has everyone trying to be prepared in case there is some awful terrorist incident(s).
Donors are desperately needed! Please consider donating.
Sue from El Paso
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
Just to jump on the bandwagon:
Which is cheaper? Buying mass-produced, pre-sealed needles manufactured at pennies per Cwt or paying someone to dig all the needles out of the trash, rinsing them off (they don’t have to be sterile but it would be bad form to show* blood in them), and then sticking each one into a plastic wrapper and sealing it by hand?
Tom~
I just gave blood this afternoon, and I’d encourage everyone to do so this month. Historically, more blood is needed in late December/early January than any other time of the year.
In February I’m going to be giving platelets for the first time, which takes about two hours. They hook you up with a hole in each arm connected by tubing that runs through a machine. The machine takes blood from one arm, filters out the platelets, and then pumps the plasma back into your other arm. This material is used for hemophiliacs whose blood has difficulty clotting.
What a world we live in. I love it!
A nitpick to J.Alora’s post (with apologies to JA, who deserves kudos):
Actually, platelets are not used for hemophiliacs, who have clotting factor (protein) deficiencies. They have normal numbers of platelets in their blood.
Cancer patients, OTOH, cannot make platelets because of the effects of their chemotherapy, or sometimes because of the cancer itself. They desperately need platelet donations, and platelets pulled off from one donor by pheresis are better for several reasons than platelets pooled from several units of whole blood.
1 - They last longer & work better
2 - Less exposure to antigens, so less hard to match them to a donor the next time they need blood products.
3 - Reduced risk to the recipient of acquiring hepatitis, HIV, or other infection.
Please don’t take this as criticism - you should feel terrific about donating, and especially about donating platelets. Because calcium is removed from the blood during pheresis to prevent the platelets from clotting before they get transfused, you may want to take some calcium containing TUMS to the donor center with you - if your calcium level drop, you might get some numbness, tingling, or muscle cramping for a few hours after donating. Many donor centers also serve Ca++ enriched OJ for donors.
Sue from El Paso
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
Giving blood is good. It is as simple as that. If you wish to give blood, go to the blood bank and they’ll test you, BUT inform them if you are on any medications because those medications will remain in the bloodstream and some they don’t mind but some they do.
If you are squeamish about it, well that’s OK. If you are squeamish about accepting someone else’s blood when you have surgery scheduled, well you can donate for yourself. They’ll keep your blood separate from the others and give it to you as needed during surgery – check with your doctor as to the actual procedure.
The only problems which have cropped up with donated blood have been few and at the very beginning of the AIDS epidemic when blood banks, for financial reasons, WOULD NOT test their donated supplies for the disease nor the donors. They had to be forced into it by laws and lawsuits. Even then, the infection did not hit donors because they used clean needles. It is against the law for blood banks to reuse needles.
Currently, the problem which crops up now and then is Hepatitis B, usually because of people ‘selling’ their blood or lying on the donor forms who have been infected with this condition. I think the blood supplies are now tested for this also. Blood Banks can be sued if they give out infected blood.
BTW, reusing needles to ‘save costs’ is MUCH more costly than buying them in bulk. In the ‘good old days’ nurses used to have to chemically and heat sterilize the used needles, sometimes they had to run a fine wire down the bore to clean out any accretions of medication or tissue before doing so. Plus they had to use fine grain sharpening stones to sharpen the tips with. It was very labor intensive and used when the selection of needle sizes was limited – for obvious reasons. (Fine needles could not have wire run through them or be sharpened without bending or being worn down to a nub.)
Just as giving blood is somewhat difficult for women, whose regular bleeding causes low iron, giving blood for men is really good because they can sometimes have too high a level of iron (too much red meat).
So men, giving blood is healthy.
Ladies, take your iron supplements.
Peace.
While I agree that giving blood is a good thing, let’s be honest about it.
Repeatedly jabbing a needle into your arm has the potential for some long term problems. After the last time I gave blood, by inner arm hurt like a bitch for weeks. To this day, lifting something straightarmed with it (like a pail of water) can cause pain in that area. I’m completely certain that I have some form of nerve damage.
I’m not a doctor, I don’t even play one on TV, but it seems to me that nerve damage, scarring, tearing or otherwise damaging the blood vessel, internal bleeding, infection and some other stuff are valid possibilities when giving blood. Perhaps they’re not “long term effects” per se in that not everyone gets them, but each time you roll the dice, there’s a chance.
However, as I said, I fully support giving blood. If not for the fact that I’d already given several gallons by the time I got hurt and that I now fear for my arm should I get jabbed again, I’d still be giving.
“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”
It’s too bad that they don’t allow you to give half a bag. I was advised not to give for a while because I’d faint after it was over. I’m small, so I guess I didn’t have that much blood to spare. I’d love to start giving again, though.