Blood donors 'healthier'
5:00AM
Thursday April 10, 2008
Donating blood may affect mechanisms in the body such as blood production and iron storage. Photo / Greg Bowker
Frequent blood donation is not harmful to your health, a new study confirms.
"Blood donation may actually be good for you," said Dr Gustaf Edgren of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, the study's lead author.
People who donate blood show lower cancer and mortality rates than their non-donating peers, Dr Edgren and his colleagues note in their report, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Association, but the fact that blood donors tend to be healthier overall could mask any ill effects of frequent donation.
There are also several mechanisms by which frequent blood donation could theoretically affect health, Dr Edgren noted.
For one, drawing blood causes the body to ramp up production of blood cells in the bone marrow. This accelerated cell division, or "mitotic stress," could increase the likelihood of malignancy in blood-forming tissues.
On the positive side, excess iron stores have been tied to heart disease and certain types of cancer, so people who have their blood drawn regularly may be depleting these stores and thus improving their health.
