Living a healthy life through blood donation

avatar

pixabay

When I was still an undergraduate. I was this kind of person that has phobia when it comes to blood donation. During those days we normally go for hospital posting every morning and come back in the evening.

That period, I always see some persons that normally comes around to donate blood to the less privileged ones.

Through out my life I hated giving out blood all in the name of charity organizations or for monetary value.

One day during one of those days, I was actually reading my books preparing for a particular examination, that was my third year in the university. It happens to be that when I was reading, I came across a particular place they talked about the benefits of blood donation. As I was reading down the book I was totally impressed. Since that day I started encouraging people to donate blood so far your blood level is between the normal range for blood donation.

I know you may be asking yourself why I said so, but in this article I will be telling you the reason why you need to be donating blood at least once in a year.

what is blood donation

Blood donation to me is the act of a donor to donate blood to a patient in other to save life. It actually involves two persons,the giver and the receiver.

Blood donation occurs when a particular patient has lost a lot of blood may be during sickness or as a result of accident. In this situation, the person needs blood to help him or her regain the necessary nutrients needed for survival and to help in the production of antibodies that enable your body to fight against disease such as covid 19 and many others.

During blood donation a lot of things are considered. We Determine if the donor is fit and eligible for donation. This observation includes:

age:

A person who willingly want to donate blood should be at least from 18 years and above before coming to donate blood.

haemoglobin level

A person who is fit for donation should have a blood level(pcv) that are within the normal range. For male the range is from 40 to 56 while the female is from 37 to 53. In children haemoglobin level are usually high but are not included as donor.

pregnancy and breast feeding

Any woman who breast feeds a baby are not meant to donate blood for any reason.
Pregnant mother are also not among the people fit for donation.

health

Any volunteers for blood donation must be in a good health. There are some diseases that may likely prevent the donor from donating blood. This includes HIV virus, hepatitis, flu, common cold, and many others. When you have them, you are not being permitted to donate blood to any patient in other not to transmit those diseases.
Body weight are also considered when donating blood, 45kg and above are only permitted to donate blood.

procedure for blood donation

A day to the blood donation day. The donor is meant to have a very sound night sleep before going to the donating center.
When you get there, you register for blood donation, complete a medical history and then undergo a mini physical exams. The donor is given a form to fill and sign before donating blood. After then comes the procedure 👇

Firstly, clean the donors arm with alcohol pad. Blood is best taken at the cubital forsa where the central vein are being seen.
Secondly, insert a new and sterile needle inside the vein to enable the efficient passage of blood.
Thirdly, attach the needle to the bag where the blood are temporary stored. This bag must be anticoagulated to prevent the blood from clotting, mainly citrate phosphate dextrose adenine bag.

Finally, allow the blood to flow for some minutes like 6 to 10 minutes for the bag to get filled. After that the blood is then shifted to the place where they are being transfused to a patient.

Since we have gotten to this stage of blood donation, telling you the necessary things needed to be done before blood donation. Now we will be now going down to tell you why as a qualified donor the reasons why you may need to be donating blood once in a year.

the need for blood donation

Giving blood can help reveal a potential health problem: many people today finds it very difficult to visit hospital when it comes to medical checkup. This kind of person found him or herself in the hospital when he/she finds out that their body is beginning to change. At this point you getting to the hospital may find out that your sickness has gotten to a severe level.
But giving out blood helps you to know some setting things about the state of your body and some diseases which you may not know that you have like HIV, hepatitis and many others.

reduction of iron

Increase of human iron level causes a disease known as hemochromatosis which one in every two hundred people in U.S havesource.
This is one of the genetic disease which is caused as a result of iron overload. So going to the hospital to donate blood once in a while helps to bring down the level of iron in the body and help maintain a normal iron level.

lowering the risk of suffering from heart attack.

Donating blood at least once in every year reduces the risk of heart attack to 88%.source. This is related to the iron issues which we talked about. Increase in iron level causes constriction of the blood vessel leading to high chances of coming down with heart attack. Giving out blood helps to reduce the number of iron therefore keeping your blood vessel in a normal condition.

reduces the risk of developing cancer

Giving out blood also reduces our chances of developing cancer. Though the link between giving out blood and reducing cancer is slim. This is also pointing down to the increased level of iron which may also be one of the contributing factor.

healthy liver

Giving out blood helps to keep your liver in a good state. Non alcoholic fatty liver disease and hepatitis has been found out to be one of the diseases the liver is poss with. This is as well linked with increased iron level which is found to be the cause of the liver diseases.

in conclusion

Blood donation is not actually seen the way some people see it. You helping out with blood to people is as well help you indirectly. Let us all reread this and find out more reason why we should donate blood and also to help our own life.

thanks for reading
References

who can give blood

Blood transfusions and the immune system
blood donation
Surprising Health Benefits of Donating Blood
advantages of blood donation


0
0
0.000
12 comments
avatar

Es algo muy importante, las donaciones de sangre. Buen trabajo amigo.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I have never donated blood before but after reading severally about it's numerous benefits I might just start considering making it an option to donate on a regular basis.

0
0
0.000
avatar

It is good to donate blood anytime you discovered that your pcv is between the normal range. Just give it a try

0
0
0.000
avatar

Just left the hospital and I can say that every one that is eligible to donate should consider donating blood. People are really suffering.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Am telling you. Everyday we keep on having cases of decrease in blood percent. I think donating blood we go a long way to help some patient in the hospital who are in need of it. Nice one bro

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thanks for your contribution to the STEMsocial community. Feel free to join us on discord to get to know the rest of us!

Please consider delegating to the @stemsocial account (85% of the curation rewards are returned).

You may also include @stemsocial as a beneficiary of the rewards of this post to get a stronger support. 
 

0
0
0.000
avatar

Congratulations @hillaryisidore! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):

You received more than 100 HP as payout for your posts and comments.
Your next payout target is 250 HP.
The unit is Hive Power equivalent because your rewards can be split into HP and HBD

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:

PUD - PUH - PUM - It's all about to Power Up!
Christmas Challenge - 1000 Hive Power Delegation Winner
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
0
0
0.000
avatar

We should definitely consider doing it as much as possible. Having large blood reserves is always very important for our health system.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Most of the people who refuse to donate blood either have phobia of blood, or they might think it would affect them in negative way instead of thinking the opposite. As long as people get to read informative articles that shares the benefits of donating blood, people will start considering it more and more which will lead to healthier life for them and maybe saving someone's else life.

I have some knowledge about that yet I didn't know that there is a relation between cancer and blood levels which donation helps in reducing the risk of developing cancer. Also I was a little surprised by the number of people who has hemochromatosis... It's actually high.

Great informative article, thanks for sharing!

0
0
0.000