How Donating Blood Can Be Good For Your Overall Health

Benefits of blood donation Blood donation is often refers to the process of collecting, testing and storing blood components in blood banks and then used for transfusion purposes. It is also considered as generous act. The most important advantage of donating blood is the feeling of having saved someone’s life. Donating blood provides an essential lifeline to those who are in need. Research demonstrates that the act of donating blood is not only good for receiver, but also beneficial for donor. According to research, those aged 43 to 61 had lower risk of heart attack and stroke when they donate blood after every six months.

WHAT IS THE REQUIREMENT FOR DONATING BLOOD?

A medical check-up of the willing individual is considered one of the important steps. If he or she satisfies all the necessary requirements then only he is allowed to proceed further.

  • A willing individual should be between 17 to 60 years.
  •  Minimum weight should be of 99 1b, if the person is between the age of 17 to 60.
  • Donor’s Blood pressure should be within normal range that is between 160/90 to 110/60.
  • Regular pulse rate of willing individual should be 80 to 100 beats per minute.
  • The donor should be healthy and physically fit and should carry a photo ID card while coming to donate blood.

ADVANTAGES OF DONATING BLOOD:-

Beneficial for heart health: – The increased level of iron in the blood promotes the risk of heart disease. However, research manifest that donating blood improves the overall cardiovascular health of the donor. As the amount of iron in the blood get reduced due to donating blood, particularly males. This finally cuts down the possibilities of heart attack by up to 88%. Apart from these, donating blood on the regular basis also lowers the risk of other cardiac problems such as stroke by 33%.      

Diminishes the risk of cancer:- According to studies, the increased level of iron has been thought of to increase free radical damage in the body and has been associated to increase the risk of cancer. Research has found that those who donate blood twice in a year had lower iron levels and consequently lowers the risk of cancer and mortality. In addition, during consistency of blood donation, when iron is released from the bloodstream, results into the reduction in oxidative stress which accordingly reduces the risk of liver, lung, colon and throat cancer.

Assist in burning calories effectively: – The act of blood donation throws extra calories and reduces blood cholesterol level. Donating blood improves overall fitness. No doubt, it is good news for highly obese people or those who are beginning crash dieting for reducing their weight. Because donating one pint of blood helps in burning around 650 calories.

Improves the production of new blood cells: – After blood donation, the donor’s body immediately starts to replenish the lost blood. Within 48 hours of blood donation, the marrow bone develops new cells while the lost red blood cells also substitutes completely within one or two months. Thus, donating blood once in 3-4 months helps to encourage the development of new blood cells in the body. However, this process of replenishment of blood in the body helps a person to stay healthy and also raises the energy to work more efficiently.

Enriches feeling of well being among elder people: –  According to studies those elder people who have been giving blood on regular basis have a feeling of reenergized and invigorated.

Donor obtains free health screening: – Other than all the above benefits, a donor obtain free prior health screening and free mini blood test. Apart from these, a blood pressure, HB level and complete body checkup is also done. In addition, Blood test also assists in identifying other major diseases and the donor is also informed immediately in any case if the tests conducted showed any positive results.

The pleasure of saving someone’s life: – By donating blood many people life can be saved and new hope or second lease of life may also be given to those patient whose situation is worse or critical. By donating blood you are not only giving the happiness to the patient that depends on your blood but also to those who depends on that patient. The blood you donate is divided into various components in order to the requirement of patient as there no perfect substitutes for human blood. Each component can be utilized by different recipients for various purposes. Many newborn babies life can also be saved effectively from a single donor as their requirements are smaller. In addition, every time if you donate blood you can help to 3 to 4 individual recipients.

 REASONS THAT FORBID A PERSON FROM DONATING BLOOD 

  • Person suffering from minor illness like cold, flu and other viral infection. In fact, he has to wait until he completely get cured
  • Person suffering from asthma has to wait until condition back to the normal.
  •  If the person has experiences blood transfusion, has to wait for at least 1 year.
  • If the person had body piercing or got a tattoo, should wait for 1 year.
  •  Person indulging in any sort of drug abuse should wait for at least a year.
  • Person indulge in alcohol consumption should wait for only 12 hours.
  • Those women undergo normal pregnancy should wait 6 weeks after delivery.
  • Person suffering or suffered from tuberculosis should wait for 2 years after complete recovery.
  • Person suffering with malaria has to wait for 3 years after complete recovery.
  • Person suffering from anemia has to wait till he recovers completely.

However, due to the use of latest equipment and serious attention towards surgical cleanliness, the process of blood donation has become easy and seems no longer dangerous. All the reasons that mentioned above shows that blood donation as a lifesaving procedure works wonderfully for both that is donor as well as patient.

Anton Lawrence
Latest posts by Anton Lawrence (see all)
How Donating Blood Can Be Good For Your Overall Health