While walking towards the Blood Bank that was set up in my university, I noticed how nervous and confused my friend was. From the look upon her face I could tell that her heart was racing and veins shrunk out of fear. For the first-timer, nervousness is no surprise but I was quite astonished knowing how brave she is. All at once she told me how strictly her mother had warned her about giving blood. Wonder why? Because she was made to believe the myths that are associated with donation of blood especially in our society. Giving blood causes swelling in your body and makes you fat; once you give blood your body never makes up for the “blood loss”; women must never give blood because of monthly period; your face grows pale and forever you stay fragile, regretting the blood you’ve given….. And so on and so forth!
ALL THE THINGS THAT I HAVE JUST MENTIONED ABOVE ARE A “MYTH”! And people actually believe in all these baseless stories without doing a little research to look for the real facts. There are a few caring ones too who cross the barriers and reach out to save lives with their blood but many healthy bodies don’t even allow a pint out of their body. What could be their reason? They believe that they just look healthy but are weak inside and they fondly pull down their lower lashes to show how they don’t have enough blood. I am not exaggerating at all, these things do happen here.
Thanks to all the blood donors who have saved at least one life and I cannot thank enough the ones who regularly donate their blood to save lives. Without a doubt it is of utmost importance to the ones who receive blood and get the gift of life but did you know donating blood actually has many benefits for the donors as well? A reduced risk of heart disease is the highlighted benefit for the blood donors, who are 88% less likely to have a heart attack. According to Dr. Richard Gammon, Florida’s Blood Centers, Iron has a significant impact on hardening of the arteries and when you donate blood you are removing 225-250 mg. of iron from your system. It reduces the free radical damage that might happen to the blood vessels in the body and also reduces the heart disease.
Additionally, pre-menopausal women tend to have half the amount of iron than men because they lose iron every month through menstruation. Coincidently, they also suffer about half as many heart attacks. However, once a woman goes to menopause, her risk of heart attack increases but donating blood can reduce that risk.
Blood donors live a healthier life as compared to the ones who never donate their blood. Moreover, there may be some underlying medical conditions that an individual may not be aware of before they go to donate blood because of the free mini-physical they receive revealing their total cholesterol level, Hemoglobin as well as blood pressure which are the three major risk factors when it comes to heart disease.
Adding on to the health benefits, I’d like to share Aram and Ruben who are some workout masters and it would be motivating for people who do exercise and maintain healthy good-looking body. Aram and Ruben believe that donating blood is an internal exercise as it tells your body to make more new blood. Ruben himself is a blood donor and this has never affected his exercise routine or fitness.
Besides the best feeling of helping save someone’s life, you can count on the benefits that giving blood brings to your body and health. So if you are 17 years old, weigh 110 pounds or more and consider yourself healthy then it makes you eligible for saving lives of others by donating blood every 2 months. You don’t need to worry about your blood count or any health risks because you will be physically examined to make sure that the donation does not become riskier for you and if that is the case, they do not take away your blood.
While doing the research on the benefits of blood donation, I discovered James Harrison who is famous as “Man with the golden arm”. He’s a donor from Australia who holds a world record and his blood has saved two million babies from Rhesus Disease. At the age of 13, he went through some surgery that asked for 13 liters of blood. His life was saved by the donations made by people and as soon as he turned 18, he began to donate blood knowing the preciousness of saving life and the psychological uplift that this feeling gives.
Harrison’s story is inspiring but you don’t have to sit back and relax, accumulating all the iron, waiting for something to come about like what happened to Harrison. Even if saving others’ life does not direct you to donate blood, you can surely consider the benefits it can bring to your health and heart. Be a hero and save a life!
This Article is Written by “Ghalia Akram” Senior Author At Envirocivil.com
Originally published by www.envirocivil.com
