The Importance of Donating Blood Regularly

I gave blood today and before giving blood they take my blood pressure and pulse and temperature. By giving blood regularly, you can get your blood pressure, pulse and temperature values regularly so that you can know what your 'normal' readings are. Today I had 122/75 blood pressure, a pulse of 60 and a temperature of 36.6C - all fairly normal values. It was my 43rd blood donation today, and I do it this often because I am able to donate without fainting or getting queesy and so that I can monitor these health signals. Here in Quebec only about 3% of the eligible population gives blood. Since I am one of those 3%, I go almost as often as I can. The rule here is that I can give blood again in eight weeks, so September 20th I'll be looking to see what is the soonest mobile blood donor clinic by checking their website.

There is a constant need from hospitals for the blood donations that people like me provide. Given that only 3% of the people here donate, it is important that those 3% do so more regularly. The Hema-Quebec website indicates that 250,000 units of blood are used each year in Quebec requiring 1000 donations per day, so obviously the more each donor can donate, the better off the system will be. Giving to help others is by far the most important reason for donating blood.

There are health benefits to giving blood on a regular basis, they are listed below.

• Reduce your Iron level - for men especially who do not have a monthly blood loss, giving blood regularly reduces the amount of iron in the blood which lowers the chance of cardiovascular problems.
• Lower Cancer Risks - by donating blood regularly the blood is replaced with new, fresh blood which is a form of diluting the total human blood supply of any toxins that may be in there. This reduces the risks for many types of cancers, including stomach, throat, lung, colon and liver.
• Refreshing the blood supply - with regular donations the blood supply is refreshed which helps the blood to do its job more efficiently.
• Tracking Health Indicators - by getting the readings of blood pressure, pulse and temperature, and keeping track of these with each donation, we can more easily identify if a problem comes up because we have a baseline to compare to.

If you have never given blood, give it a try to see if you are able to and that it is not a difficult thing for you to do. If it works out, see if you can manage to go more than once a year, or even as often as you are able to.

Some of the information above was taken from the following links: