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Canadian blood services specifically doesn't allow me to donate blood. Admittedly, I fear needles pretty fiercely anyway so it's not something I'm going to be f

Canadian blood services specifically doesn't allow me to donate blood. Admittedly, I fear needles pretty fiercely anyway so it's not something I'm going to be fighting. I find it interesting though that the argument to donate blood is that one's blood might be toxic. That giving away your toxic blood might make your own blood less toxic.

jesusofnazarath 5y ago
wirelesspotat 5y ago
Yeah, the article mentions recipients of the toxic blood. I wonder if there will be more research to identify any risks for recipients > The logic in removing them is simple: PFAS work by binding to serum proteins in the blood; removing some of this blood, therefore, would lead to the reduction of forever chemicals in the bloodstream. As to the question of what happens to recipients of this blood: “Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances are ubiquitous, and no threshold has been identified that poses an increased risk to recipients of donated blood components.”
DrBoring 5y ago
That prompts a curious thought: If you dump 1 unit of your toxic blood into the 9 units of blood inside the body of a transfusion recipient, then how toxic does their blood become? 1/10 toxic? I've also wondered, is it possible for a transfusion recipient to fail a drug screening test because their doner had recently consumed drug prior to their donation.
d4mi3n 5y ago
Is there any reason why one couldn’t simply have blood as a kind of treatment? I’d certainly be happy to have blood drawn if it meant lowering blood toxicity I had no other way of treating.
- slt2021 5y ago
  religious Muslims have treatment that is exactly that - blood drawing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupping_therapy#Wet_cupping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupping_therapy#Wet_cupping
- toast0 5y ago
  Therapeutic phlebotomy, basically bloodletting, is a common treatment for hemochromatosis, iron overload. It would make sense as a treatment if you've got too much of a substance in your system, that substance accumulates in your blood, and you're otherwise healthy enough to tolerate the loss of blood periodically. Depending on the substance, there may be other means that are more effective, or less invasive, of course; and if it's an urgent need to reduce the substance, bloodletting would likely be too slow.
  - wrycoder 5y ago
    Or you could take small dose aspirin and just bleed internally. Same result, fewer heart attacks.
fredley 5y ago
I started donating blood specifically because I have a needle phobia. I'm up to 8 donations now and feeling better about it each time.
- shafyy 5y ago
  I also had an "irrational" fear of donating blood and needles, and being encouraged by my girlfriend, also started doing it. Well, I did it once a couple of months ago and almost passed after some minutes (they had to stop). Apparently, this is not uncommon for young skinny males. But maybe my excitement also didn't help. Will try again :D

jesusofnazarath 5y ago

wirelesspotat 5y ago

Yeah, the article mentions recipients of the toxic blood. I wonder if there will be more research to identify any risks for recipients > The logic in removing them is simple: PFAS work by binding to serum proteins in the blood; removing some of this blood, therefore, would lead to the reduction of forever chemicals in the bloodstream. As to the question of what happens to recipients of this blood: “Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances are ubiquitous, and no threshold has been identified that poses an increased risk to recipients of donated blood components.”

DrBoring 5y ago

That prompts a curious thought: If you dump 1 unit of your toxic blood into the 9 units of blood inside the body of a transfusion recipient, then how toxic does their blood become? 1/10 toxic? I've also wondered, is it possible for a transfusion recipient to fail a drug screening test because their doner had recently consumed drug prior to their donation.

d4mi3n 5y ago

Is there any reason why one couldn’t simply have blood as a kind of treatment? I’d certainly be happy to have blood drawn if it meant lowering blood toxicity I had no other way of treating.

slt2021 5y ago
religious Muslims have treatment that is exactly that - blood drawing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupping_therapy#Wet_cupping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupping_therapy#Wet_cupping
toast0 5y ago
Therapeutic phlebotomy, basically bloodletting, is a common treatment for hemochromatosis, iron overload. It would make sense as a treatment if you've got too much of a substance in your system, that substance accumulates in your blood, and you're otherwise healthy enough to tolerate the loss of blood periodically. Depending on the substance, there may be other means that are more effective, or less invasive, of course; and if it's an urgent need to reduce the substance, bloodletting would likely be too slow.
- wrycoder 5y ago
  Or you could take small dose aspirin and just bleed internally. Same result, fewer heart attacks.

fredley 5y ago

I started donating blood specifically because I have a needle phobia. I'm up to 8 donations now and feeling better about it each time.

shafyy 5y ago
I also had an "irrational" fear of donating blood and needles, and being encouraged by my girlfriend, also started doing it. Well, I did it once a couple of months ago and almost passed after some minutes (they had to stop). Apparently, this is not uncommon for young skinny males. But maybe my excitement also didn't help. Will try again :D