Tuesday 28 July 2009

Why give blood?

Would you accept a blood transfusion if you were about to die?

If the answer is yes, then it's only right you give blood too. You can save a life, it might even be the life of one of your relatives or friends!

Apparently, each time you give blood, you remove some of the iron it contains. It is believed that high blood iron levels can increase the risk of heart disease. Iron has been shown to speed the oxidation of cholesterol, a process thought to increase the damage to arteries that ultimately leads to cardiovascular disease.

It is also believe that blood iron levels help explain why a man's risk of heart disease begins earlier than a woman's. Women lose blood -- and lower their iron levels -- each time they menstruate. Men, on the other hand, begin storing iron in body tissues starting in their twenties, which is just about the time their heart attack danger begins to climb.

According to Victor Herbert, M.D., a hematologist at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, there are normally about 1,000 milligrams of iron "stored" in the average adult man's body but only about 300 milligrams in a premenopausal woman's. Once women stop menstruating, however, their iron levels -- and their heart disease risk -- begin to climb, eventually matching that of men.

It has been shown that giving blood every 3 months helps to cleanse the body. Gets rid of bound iron and some old red cells. RBC's live for 4 months after they are produced.

Evidence suggests that giving blood has health benefits and could save your life.

Not everyone believes that though: "I do not believe there is proof of an association between iron level and the risk of heart disease in men with normal iron metabolism," says Peter Tomasulo, M.D., a director at the International Federation of Red Cross Societies. "The data is preliminary at best." Most scientists, in fact, still think estrogen is probably the most important reason why women are protected from heart disease until they reach menopause.

Proof won't come until researchers conduct large and well-controlled studies that compare the heart disease risk of men who regularly give blood with that of men who don't. Already several small studies have been done, however, offering tantalizing evidence that donating blood might be a very good idea. There is no risk to a healthy person donating blood, and potentially significant benefit.

You're just a click away from saving someone else's life, go to http://www.blood.co.uk/

Article written by N

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