15
votes
Accepted
Risks of blood donation with autoimmune diseases
The World Health Organization published a report entitled Blood Donor Selection: Guidelines on Assessing Donor Suitability for Blood Donation. Based on a review of scientific studies and other ...
- 1,848
9
votes
Accepted
Why I should avoid exercising after blood donation?
Most blood donors are a bit weakened from giving blood, despite often feeling great. The amount of blood removed from circulation reduces your possible performance level and you might tire more easily ...
- 6,887
6
votes
how many 'lives' are saved from one donation of blood?
I'm answering my own question, yay! This is my attempt to answer my question despite my lack of familiarity with much of the medicine. I therefore stress that I am not guaranteeing this answer, it's ...
- 1,027
6
votes
Accepted
Are platelet donations needed more than whole blood?
I don't know if anyone can give a definite answer as to why these folks so badly wanted you to donate platelets over whole blood, but there are many possible reasons.
Platelets give you more bang for ...
- 1,848
5
votes
Accepted
Why can't Jane give blood?
I presume she is at risk for developing bowel malignancy at some time in the future. So, unless she is screened very regularly, then if she is accepted as a blood donor, she might be donating blood ...
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5
votes
how many 'lives' are saved from one donation of blood?
Here are some statistics:
Each year, an estimated 6.8 million people in the U.S. donate blood.
13.6 million whole blood and red blood cells are collected in the U.S. in a year.
Giving blood saves 4.5 ...
- 51
5
votes
Can blood transfusion help in case of scleroderma?
I'm not aware of any work done in this area. A whole blood transfusion is not going replace circulating defective lymphocytes.
On the other hand Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation has some ...
- 13.2k
5
votes
Why lower gauge needles aren't used to draw blood for blood tests?
Gauge sizes do affect the red blood cells (RBCs). However, this mostly applies in the high range with 23 gauge needles (and higher) predisposing the sample to hemolysis (the destruction of RBCs) which ...
5
votes
Accepted
Blood donor restrictions (Mad Cow Disease) in Australia/France for people who lived in Britain, is it justified?
Blood donor restrictiction aims at preventing the transmission of the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (also known as Mad Cow Disease for a layperson), which is a prion disease that leads to ...
- 3,194
4
votes
Accepted
What are the implications of having weak A or B blood?
The article The importance of weak ABO subgroups has a section on this, in addition to general information on what weak subgroups are. All quotes in this answer areas from that study.
Weak blood ...
- 6,982
4
votes
Accepted
Are there any other probabilities for an O blood typed kid other than O & O parents?
If a child has blood type O, it means both his alleles are recessive (since A and B are dominant over O); one of them he gets from their mother, and the other one from their father. That means that ...
- 709
4
votes
Why can't we give blood within 8 days after taking an anti-inflammatory?
For this answer, I'll assume that with “anti-inflammatory pills” we're exclusively talking about NSAIDs.
In summary, I see multiple reasons why donors have to wait a few days after taking NSAIDs. In ...
- 238
3
votes
Accepted
Health benefits from giving blood?
This "rumor" is initially mostly based on a humor. According to humorism your four juices might be out of balance or gone bad and that might prescribe a course of the ancient practice of bloodletting ...
- 6,887
3
votes
Why can't we give blood within 8 days after taking an anti-inflammatory?
Although ACCP recommends 7- to 10-day aspirin intake cessation before surgery in patients with low cardiovascular risk, the results of our study suggest that aspirin intake cessation not longer than ...
- 311
3
votes
Accepted
Effect of Blood donation needles on skin
Larger needles aren't used to draw blood faster in general. They are used to avoid hemolysis. 16-18 gauge needles:
A large needle (16 to 17 gauge) is used to minimize shearing
forces that may ...
- 2,975
3
votes
Is it necessary to hydrate before doing a double red cell blood donation?
According to the Stanford Blood Center and the American Society for Apharesis, you should increase your intake of fluids, calcium, and iron at least two days before your platelet donation appointment ...
- 302
2
votes
What did people do before the discovery of blood groups?
Short: before the knowledge of blood typing transfusions were attempted and near all failed.
Long: There were many attempted transfusions that were mostly fatal.
The first attempted (recorded) ...
- 121
2
votes
Does giving blood lower blood pressure?
Blood pressure is not significantly affected in the short term. The body has all sorts of homeostatic mechanisms to maintain blood pressure, such as increasing heart rate and constricting blood ...
- 3,283
2
votes
How much time will take for receiving 1 bag blood?
Normally whole blood is not used for transfusion purposes. Instead it is separated into components which are then transfused after first being aggregated. If someone needs a blood transfusion, then ...
- 13.2k
2
votes
Accepted
How should I account for a blood donation while couting calories/trying to lose weight?
You might as well ignore the calories of food given to you in such a situation:
Burns Calories:
People burn approximately 650 calories per donation of one pint of blood, according to the ...
- 6,887
1
vote
What would be the chances of catching HIV when getting a blood donation from a man who has sex with Men?
TL;DR — The transmission of HIV through blood products is very rare, but examples have occurred in some low-income countries which lack the equipment to test all blood.
You said:
Around the world ...
- 6,164
1
vote
Is there a point of being an Organ Donor if my blood type is AB Negative?
According to the standard blood compatibility chart:
(image from Owlcation: The Basics of Blood and Blood Typing - Wikipedia file)
AB blood types can only donate to other AB blood types, but AB ...
- 1,513
1
vote
Accepted
Is it necessary to hydrate before doing a double red cell blood donation?
I agree with the comment by Carey Gregory that the answer was available online had you done more prior research, but ironically this specific question of yours was the first result suggested by Google....
- 403
1
vote
Questions about the use of Vitamin-E to prevent scar formation after blood donation
WebMD seems to suggest no:
"Atopic eczema (disorder causing skin itching)
Vitamin E has been applied to the skin to prevent scars. However, because of a risk of allergic skin reaction, some ...
- 141
1
vote
Accepted
Take different blood components from different people
There are no stupid ideas, this is a very good question. Unfortunately the answer is you can't do this - what determines the blood type is the presence of antigens on the surface of red blood cells. ...
- 385
1
vote
Blood Donation After Effects
Be sure to supplement enough iron (about 18 mg per day)! Take your iron with vitamin C and avoid tea and coffee. American Red Cross: "The American Red Cross now recommends that individuals who give ...
- 74
1
vote
What did people do before the discovery of blood groups?
The first recorded blood transfusion was done on dogs in 1665. Two years later, blood was successfully transferred from a sheep to a human. In 1818, James Blundell, an obstetrician, successfully ...
- 6,982
1
vote
Toxoplasmosis during pregnancy and blood donation
First, it'll be necessary to know if only the mother was infected during pregnancy, or if the parasite responsible for toxoplasmosis (Toxoplasma gondii) was really transmitted to the foetus. This was ...
- 441
1
vote
Accepted
Toxoplasmosis during pregnancy and blood donation
People who have had toxoplasmosis are not barred from donating blood (at least in the places I checked). While toxoplasmosis during pregnancy is dangerous for the embryo/fetus, if they don't have ...
- 6,982
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible