The Surprising Benefits of Donating Blood

Among a worsening blood shortage, NewYork-Presbyterian experts explicate how altruistic blood not but helps someone in demand, only besides offers health benefits for the donors themselves.

Image of a stopwatch on a red background with text saying every two seconds, someone needs blood.

Every ii seconds, someone in the U.S. requires a claret transfusion, according to the American Red Cantankerous. The benefits of donating blood include helping people injured in accidents, undergoing cancer handling, and battling claret diseases, amidst other reasons.

Unfortunately, electric current blood shortages are leading to delays in critical claret transfusions for people in need. In January 2022, the American Ruddy Cross announced that it was facing its worst blood shortage in a decade amongst the Omicron surge. This spring, the New York Blood Centre said information technology has been experiencing an alarming driblet in donations due to school spring breaks and vacation travel. These shortages are occurring as COVID rates are in one case again rising. This is why claret donors are needed now more than always before.

"Donating blood saves lives," says Dr. Robert DeSimone, director of transfusion medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Eye, who is encouraging people to do their part and make an appointment to donate.

"For as long equally medicine has been effectually, we've had to rely on the goodness of other people to give us claret when nosotros need information technology," says Dr. Sarah Vossoughi, the medical director of apheresis and associate managing director of transfusion medicine and cellular therapy at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia Academy Irving Medical Center. "Nosotros really need people who want to come and donate. The fact that we can store blood and employ it when we demand it in parts—whether you demand the cherry cells, the plasma, or the platelets—has been a huge medical advance."

While blood donors don't await to be rewarded for the act of kindness, rolling upwards your sleeve comes with some surprising wellness benefits. Hither's what you get when you give blood:

A Free Wellness Screening

"By going to donate blood, you are getting a mini-concrete," says Dr. DeSimone.

Before you are allowed to donate,  your vital signs will be checked to make sure you are fit enough for the procedure. This examination might plough up a status that needs medical attention, such as loftier blood pressure or a heart arrhythmia like atrial fibrillation. In improver, you'll be screened for infectious diseases y'all may be unaware of.

"If we detect an issue with your vital signs or another health upshot, nosotros would direct y'all to go to a doc at that point to be checked," Dr. DeSimone says.

The health screening will also reveal if you take a rare blood type. This information can exist useful if you ever face surgery or another medical situation in which a transfusion may be required. Plus, y'all'll accept the satisfaction of knowing your donation is particularly needed.

Headshot of Dr. Robert A. DeSimone

Dr. Robert A. DeSimone

A Healthier Middle and Vascular System

Regular claret donation is linked to lower blood force per unit area and a lower chance for eye attacks. "It definitely helps to reduce cardiovascular risk factors," says Dr. DeSimone.

What'southward the connection? "If your hemoglobin is too high, blood donation helps to lower the viscosity of the claret, which has been associated with the formation of blood clots, eye attacks, and stroke," Dr. DeSimone says. "Interestingly, these benefits are more significant in men compared to women. Nosotros retrieve maybe it's because women have menstrual cycles, then they exercise it naturally without donating claret."

People with a condition called hereditary hemochromatosis must have blood removed regularly to prevent the buildup of iron. Fortunately, this blood tin do good others.

"These are essentially healthy patients who are otherwise normal, only they accept a gene mutation where they make too much blood, and they brand as well much normal claret," Dr. Vossoughi says. "So nosotros can utilise that claret."

The New York Blood Center Hereditary Hemochromatosis Plan allows people with hemochromatosis to donate blood rather than have it removed and thrown away. "Instead of having to become to a clinic or become to 1 of our phlebotomy centers every few months to reduce their blood book, they can go to whatsoever local blood bulldoze," Dr. Vossoughi says. "That claret volition then exist used for somebody who needs information technology."

Headshot of Dr. Sarah Vossoughi

Dr. Sarah Vossoughi

A Happier, Longer Life

One blood donation can save up to three lives, according to Dr. DeSimone. People usually donate because information technology feels skilful to assist others, and altruism and volunteering have been linked to positive health outcomes, including a lower run a risk for depression and greater longevity.

"Giving blood is a manner to engage in the immediate community and help people effectually you," Dr. Vossoughi adds. "People who do these types of things and engage in their community in this way tend to take better health and longer lives."

It is also a mode to feel that y'all accept positively helped during the COVID-19 crisis. Altruistic claret is safety if you lot have had the COVID-19 vaccine. It is also safe if y'all have had COVID-19, though y'all must exist symptom-gratuitous for two weeks and have non had a positive diagnostic exam for COVID-19 in the last 14 days, Dr. DeSimone says. If yous have any COVID-nineteen symptoms similar a fever or coughing, do non give blood. Donating claret is prophylactic as donors are socially-distanced and required to wear a face mask covering their olfactory organ and mouth, regardless of vaccination status.

"Creating moments of kindness during a time of need does wonders for your mental health and feeling of well-being," Dr. DeSimone says.

Added Bonus: A Light Snack

"For 1 blood donation, it takes your body about 500 calories to replace information technology," Dr. Vossoughi says. Thus, the juice and cookies you lot're offered after giving blood are a "zero-calorie snack," she says. If you prefer, go for a fancy dessert instead!

Blood Donation Tips

If you lot plan to requite blood, follow these steps:

  • Drink plenty of water. Staying hydrated makes it easier to find your veins and prevents you lot from becoming featherbrained after donating, Dr. Vossoughi says.
  • Consume well beforehand. Don't skip breakfast, and be sure to eat snacks offered to you lot. "These things will help you tolerate the donation well and feel like yourself the rest of the day," she says.
  • Do before donating blood, non later on. It's OK to go to the gym before you donate claret but not so wise afterward. "We don't want people getting dizzy," Dr. Vossoughi says. "You've basically done your workout for the mean solar day in one case you lot've donated blood."
  • Take iron tablets. The American Red Cross recommends that individuals who donate blood oftentimes take an fe supplement or a multivitamin with iron. "More and more, we're recommending that teenage donors in particular take atomic number 26, because it's been shown that teenage donors may become fe deficient after blood donation," Dr. DeSimone says.

Click here to find out where you lot can schedule an appointment or walk in to donate.

Robert A. DeSimone, One thousand.D., is managing director of transfusion medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and an assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. His main office is to oversee the mean solar day-to-day operations of the claret bank and to make sure patients receive safe and efficacious blood product transfusions. He is currently investigating the furnishings of blood donor health behaviors on recipient transfusion outcomes.

Sarah Vossoughi, M.D., RN, is the medical manager of apheresis and associate director of transfusion medicine and cellular therapy at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She is too banana professor of pathology and jail cell biology at Columbia University Vagelos Higher of Physicians and Surgeons. Prior to becoming a physician, Dr. Vossoughi served as a military officer, medical coiffure director, and trauma nurse in the U.S. Air Force in South Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan, where she evacuated more than than 900 troops out of combat zones, earning six medals. Her research interests include hemovigilance, the processes that keep the claret supply safe, and pediatric transfusion medicine.

Read More: Wellness & Health, blood, blood donation, blood drive, claret shortage, blood transfusion, coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID-19 symptoms, covid-nineteen vaccine, heart wellness, hematology, wellness