We all know giving blood helps others, but did you know donating blood is also a healthy habit for yourself? Before donating blood, everyone must pass a mini-physical and a medical history examination. During the physical, your blood pressure, pulse, temperature and your hematocrit level (the level of red cells in your blood) are checked. Sometimes physical problems such as high blood pressure are found during a blood donation mini-physical. So donating blood can be a way to keep a check on your own health while helping others. Preliminary studies also found that heart attacks and other cardiac problems were less common in men who had donated blood compared to men who had not. The two studies involved over 6,500 men and were conducted by the University of Kansas and the University of Kuopio in Finland. Researchers believe by giving blood, men -- and post-menopausal women -- rid their bodies of excessive iron, which is thought to contribute to heart disease.
While the medical community is still not certain if a link exists between blood donation and reduced risk of heart attack, giving blood certainly doesn't harm a donor and helps patients who need blood.
Improvements to the blood collection process have made giving blood today safer than ever. In addition to the medical history exam and mini-physical, which make sure donors are healthy, a new needle is used for each blood donation, and once it is used, the needle is destroyed.
One pint of blood given by a donor can save the lives of as many as three people. The blood goes to those suffering from cancer, severe burns, leukemia, anemia and hemophilia and others undergoing surgery. A donor's body will not weaken or miss that one pint, and donors can donate blood again after 56 days. The simple process of donating blood takes less than an hour and can save numerous lives. And it might just make your life a little healthier, too.

Blood Donation May Reduce Risk for Heart Disease

Researchers at the Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City have found that non-smoking men who donated blood had a 30% reduced risk for cardiovascular events such as heart attack, bypass, and stroke than non-donors. Findings were published on August 27 in the British journal Heart.
Included in the study were 3,855 participants in the Nebraska Diet Heart Survey. Subjects were a minimum of 40 years old, with no history of heart disease at the study's outset. Seven to eight years later, in 1992 or 1993, researchers contacted the group to determine whether any participants had died, donated blood, or experienced cardiovascular events such as heart attacks, chest pain, angioplasty, or bypass. Six hundred fifty five subjects had been blood donors and 3,200 subjects had not donated blood.
Non-smoking men who had donated blood within the last three years of the survey experienced the greatest benefit: a 30% reduced risk of having a heart attack or experiencing other cardiovascular events. This group of blood donors, non-smoking men, was the only group that appeared to benefit from a reduction in heart disease risk. Women donors and male donors who smoked did not have any difference in cardiac events from non-donors. Participants who donated more frequently than one unit in the three-year period did not benefit from a greater reduction in heart disease risk.
Dr. David G. Meyers, who led the research team, states that pre-menopausal women have a death rate from heart disease that is less than half that of men of the same age. Estrogen may protect women from heart disease; it is when women stop producing estrogen, as occurs during menopause, that their heart disease risk rises dramatically. Another explanation for menstruating women's lower heart disease risk is the "iron hypothesis" which suggests that menstruating women have a reduced risk of heart disease due to the loss of iron that accompanies menstruation. Menstruating women have half the amount of iron as men, as measured by the blood protein ferritin that carries iron. After menopause, these levels double. Iron can contribute to the progression of heart disease by chemically causing LDL (bad) cholesterol to promote atherosclerosis. The logic is that if men can donate blood and reduce their iron stores, they should benefit from the same protection from heart disease enjoyed by healthy, menstruating women. In this study, non-smoking men who had donated blood within three years of the survey had ferritin levels that were just slightly higher than levels found in menstruating women. Donating one unit of blood reduces the body's store of iron by 250 mg.
Theoretically, the "iron hypothesis" would apply to post-menopausal women, meaning that they also would benefit from blood donation. However, this finding was not borne out in this study. Several interesting ethical and public health questions may have to be addressed if people digress from the original motivation behind blood donation, and instead choose to donate blood in order to rid the body of iron. This situation could create a public health risk if people who truly are ineligible to donate blood to others fail to disclose their diseases. However, Dr. Meyers raises the issue of whether it would be ethical to prevent people from donating blood if blood donation will protect them from heart disease.
Dr. Meyers emphasizes that the study does not mean that blood donation reduces heart disease risk but that its findings might imply that iron contributes to atherosclerosis. The authors concede that one factor that might have influenced these findings is the possibility that the blood donors were healthier than non-donors, and therefore call for a randomized study to be conducted to investigate further this issue. Previous studies have led to conflicting findings regarding the association between high levels of iron and heart disease risk.

Heart Info Editorial Comment:

This very interesting study raises the question of whether blood donation might reduce risk of heart disease (as least in non-smoking males). However, before we all rush off to give blood for this purpose rather than more altruistic reasons, several points should be considered: 1) This study was not actually designed to address this question; 2) The apparent benefit did not extend to all persons, only non-smoking males (for unclear reasons if it really is beneficial); 3) Most importantly, there could be significant "confounding" issues in a study like this (for example, people who donate blood may also be more likely to exercise, or check their cholesterol). The "iron hypothesis" mentioned in the article has simply not been proven, and several studies have not been consistent with it. The bottom line: as usual, studies like this are great for stimulating further research, but should not influence public policy or personal health decisions. SOURCES: "Blood Donation May Cut Heart Risk", Kansas City Star, August 28, 1997; "Reduced Risk of Cardiovascular Events Reported in Nonsmoking Male Blood Donors", "Blood Donors Reap Heart Benefits", Reuters Health Information, August 27, 1997; Heart, 1997:78.

Blood Donation May Help Prevent Heart Attacks

According to new research findings from Finland, donating blood may help to prevent heart attacks. The study, the first to suggest that blood donors may have a lower risk of heart attack, was published in The British Medical Journal on March 15. Researchers from the University of Kuopio in Finland conducted a large scale study involving 2,682 men between the ages of 42 and 60, who were participants in the Kuopio ischemic heart disease risk factor study.
Over the 5.5 year period that was tracked, 153 of the participants donated blood. Researchers found that the blood donors had an 86% lower risk of heart attack than non-donors. Fewer than 1% (1) of the blood donors had an acute heart attack versus 9.8% (226) of the non-donors. This lower risk for donors was still significant even when the researchers adjusted the analyses to include coronary risk factors and other health problems. However, only 8% of the blood donors had a personal history of heart disease, compared with 26% of the non-donor group, suggesting that the difference may simply have been due to the fact that persons with known heart disease (who are at higher risk of a heart attack) are less likely to give blood.
The researchers believe, but have not proven, that a mild iron deficiency resulting from giving blood may account for the difference in risk levels between the two groups. Previous research had claimed that a mild reduction in iron stores may lower the risk for a heart attack while correspondingly, an increase in iron concentration may raise the risk of heart attack. The study's authors suggest that the depletion of iron stores that results from giving blood helps to protect the heart by hindering blood fats, including some types of cholesterol, from damaging the walls of the artery and causing a buildup of plaque (atheriosclerosis).
Results of previous studies trying to link blood iron levels and heart disease risk have been inconsistent, either showing weak association or none at all. They also acknowledge that their own new findings may have been affected by the fact that men who voluntarily donate blood tend to be more health conscious and have less pre-existing heart disease than non-donors. It is clear that more research needs to be done on different populations to investigate further these findings. HeartInfo Editorial Comment: This interesting study continues the debate about iron and heart disease, an issue which is far from resolved. Although it is an attractive hypothesis that iron may promote heart disease, there is not good evidence yet for this, and the current study certainly does not prove it. Although intriguing, the major problem is the same for all "observational" studies: people who give blood may have other characteristics that affect risk of heart attack, as compared to those who don't give blood. In this case it is clear—the presence of existing heart disease was much lower in those who gave blood and therefore it's not surprising that the blood donors had fewer subsequent heart attacks! Giving blood is a noble cause, but don't start doing it just because you think it will prevent you from having a heart attack!
SOURCES:
The British Medical Journal, March 15, 1997
Volume 314, 793-794; Reuters March 25, 1997

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Last modified: February 01, 2007