The Red Factor: How Donating Blood Can Supercharge Your Health
American author Mark Twain once remarked that life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18." This speaks to the sad irony that as you accumulate wisdom and experience you also lose your physical vitality to the ravages of aging.
And, as a result, mans Great Mission from the beginning of time has been to find a way to reverse this reality. Alexander the Great, who conquered most of the known world before he died around 323 B.C., may have been looking for a river that healed the ravages of age. During the 12th century A.D., a king known to Europeans as Prester John supposedly ruled a land that had a river of gold and a fountain of youth. 16th century Spanish Explorer Juan Ponce de Leon is reported to have wandered the American continent in search of the age-reversing Fountain of Youth to overcome aging.
RELATED:How You Should Work Out at Every Age
In modern times, from biohacking to stem cell research, man has never lost sight of the goal to reverse aging and optimize physical strength. Science may succeed one day, but until then, there is one way to slow down the effects of aging and it may be the best free method of all donating blood.
The thought of getting hooked up to tubes and watching part of your circulatory system ooze into a plastic bag can be daunting. However, donating blood may be one of the best free health hacks. In fact, donating blood can help you optimize your immune system and energy production while also saving lives.
For you, the first benefit is that donating a pint of blood every 60 days gives you an opportunity to get a free blood analysis to catch any problems up front prior to donating blood.
So, essentially, it is like getting a free health checkup every two months.
Once you have been cleared to donate, it is like a blood refresh.
The blood you donate forces your body to regenerate new blood cells to replace the ones you donated. Like trading in an old car for a new more updated version, the blood you donate is upgraded with newer, better performing blood cells.
During the donation process, you empty out cholesterol, triglycerides, and excess iron in your blood supply. This helps you optimize your bodys circulatory system as free radicals and lipids are removed. Like changing oil in your car, you empty out the old used oil that has been corroded and replace it with fresh oil.
As you donate, this blood regeneration process allows your body to become more optimized over time as the blood cells are replaced.
After you donate, the blood clinic then filters out the excess lipids and free radicals to retain the donated plasma with the platelets intact. Platelets are a key factor in your blood that helps your body form clots and stop bleeding. For those fighting cancer, chronic disease, or trying to recover from traumatic injuries it is critical to have a steady supply of platelets in the form of blood donation.
To stress their importance, every 15 seconds someone needs platelets. To make matters more difficult, platelets must also be used within five days of donation to be effective. According to the Red Cross, a single donation of platelets can yield several transfusable units, whereas it takes about five whole blood donations to make up a single transfusable unit of platelets.
For this reason, blood donors are sorely needed and in high demand.
Donating blood also helps those who experience blood thickening. A small percentage of the population has a condition called polycythemia vera that produces excess blood cells. This causes the circulatory system to get clogged by excess red blood cells which can create cardiovascular risk in the form of strokes, heart failure, and other related circulatory issues.
This is also common for men who are undergoing testosterone replacement therapy (TRT). One of the most common side effects is excess red blood cell production, but through blood donation that risk is minimized.
When we donate blood, our bodies produce new red blood cells to replace the ones we have lost. Red blood cells help people exhale carbon dioxide from the lungs, which is extremely important for our health, says Dr. Miles Beckett, the Co-Founder and CEO of Flossy.
Excess iron has also been thought to increase free-radical damage in the body and has been linked to an increased risk of cancer and aging. Research indicates that consistent blood donation has been linked to lower risks of cancers including liver, lung, colon, and throat cancers due to the reduction in oxidative stress when iron is removed from the bloodstream.
In a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, researchers followed 1,200 people split into two groups over four and a half years. One group reduced their iron stores via blood donations twice a year, while the second group did not make any changes. The study showed that the group of blood donors had lower iron levels and a lower risk of cancer and mortality.
Blood donation is particularly helpful for diabetics and reduces blood glucose levels. For a host of reasons, including avoiding heart complications, bodily amputation, neuropathy, blindness among other disease-related ailments, donating blood can reduce excess glucose which reduces the risk of diabetic-related ailments.
The elimination of red blood cells that are clumped together by excess glucose in a process called glycosylation lowers health risks. This bonding between blood cells is what increases the odds of stroke among diabetics, which is then reduced by donating blood and new non-bonded blood cells being produced as a replacement.
After donating blood, it is important that you drink a lot of water and stay hydrated. In the days that follow, you will need to focus on staying hydrated, with light activity and a diet focused on vegetables and protein.
To help, if you are working out heavily and want to incorporate donating blood as a health hack then cycle your workouts from low intensity to high intensity over time. This helps work with your bodys natural healing rhythm as you grow stronger, while also putting an emphasis on giving yourself time to recuperate.
If your energy is low and you feel like youre in a fog, donating blood is a good first step to reversing that.
New blood cells can optimize your energy production and help your body perform at a higher level. This will help improve your memory, problem-solving ability, workouts, and make a difference in someone elses life at the same time.
Donating blood can start to cleanse your body from the inside out. It is important to adopt better health habits to get the most out of it to make a maximum impact on your life. And to the life of others.
You Might Also Dig:
Original post:
The Benefits of Donating Blood - AskMen
