The adequate blood volume in a human body inhabits about three bottles of extra blood and a healthy human being can potentially donate a bottle (about 450 ml) of blood once every 12 weeks.
Blood donation proves to be a healthy habit and surprisingly enough, people who give blood also receive many health benefits: It not just helps blood renewal in the donor’s body but reduces the level of cholesterol as well. The volume of blood donation is 370:450 ml, almost 7.5% of the adult blood volume which is naturally compensated in a short period of time, within 12 weeks.
Blood donation benefits extend beyond those who receive life-giving blood: donors also receive numerous health benefits. After donating blood, the count of blood cells decreases in our body, which stimulates the bone marrow to produce new red blood cells in order to replenish the loss. So, it stimulates the production of new blood cells, refreshes the system and simultaneously increases and strengthens the donor’s immunity system. No doubt the first and foremost advantage of donating blood is the exalted feeling of saving someone’s life.
If we donate the little excess blood in our body, it could save someone’s life without creating any problem for us. Instead it would help to alleviate some major health problems like heart diseases. An observation is that blood donation is an excellent way to get rid of excess iron accumulated in our body due to its over consumption.
Excess iron in the body can stimulate the formation of free radicals, which are responsible for causing damage to body cells and tissues. Free radicals are also associated with many diseases like heart diseases and cancer: it helps in reducing the chance of heart attack to one third. Numerous physicians have noted that blood donors typically have fewer cases of weight increase, heart disease and other blood diseases than non-donors.
However, a careful screening of blood is significant before blood transfusion to avoid a number of infectious diseases such as HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, among others that can be passed from the donor to recipient.
