Another great reason to become a regular blood donor. I recall reading that the only way to remove these forever substances from your blood was through donations. My wife and I go every 3 months.
I was surprised that you cannot donate less than a pint of blood. I wanted to donate but that put me off, one pint is too much lost blood in one sitting. I wonder why these restrictions and why not allow people to donate half of that for example. Is it just for convenience for blood collectors?
It's because blood bags are typically pre-filled with a measured dose of an anticoagulant to increase how long the blood can be stored. If they're only partially filled there will be too much anticoagulant for the volume of blood.
I believe the most common anticoagulant used today is Citrate Phosphate Dextrose Adenine Solution (CPDA-1), which doesn't have a Wikipedia page, but it's mentioned on the page for the the older acid-citrate-dextrose:
However, I agree that volumes of blood per donation (which varies by country) are sometimes so big that it probably discourages many potential donors. It's possible that demanding such a large quantity from each donor reduces the total amount of blood donated.
Off the top of my head, I imagine blood bag sizes are standardized, so they're easy to deal with during an emergency transfusion.
It would be a nightmare to deal with containers with mixed volumes of blood. "This patient needs 3 litres of O-, let me figure out which combination of blood bags do I need now"
You do you, but I'm pretty athletic, donate blood frequently, and have never really noticed any degradation in my athletic performance the day after a donation. Unless you have some medical condition, the standard amount is no big deal.
for a drug that appears to lower PFAS levels. I'd be concerned about where the PFAS is partitioned in the body: giving blood isn't going to make a big difference if most of the PFAS is in your fat.
Ive never done it and the whole thing grosses me out so much id probably pass out. but reading about this lately im honestly considering it. at the same time it makes me wonder i never was interested in donating blood for greater good but now im motivated to get rid of any pfas... so someone else can take them up?
If the problem gets worse perhaps there's another solution. Like kidney patients on dialysis, we all could soon be lining up for PFAS and perhaps nano plastics dialysis.
My nervous system just short circuits from the idea of blood draw/donation. I start shaking, get super tense, and white out in a minute or so. Also, my veins are not super visible which makes the experience super tense.
It's something that I can't control, and is miserable for everyone involved.
Lol, I feel like I'm very similar reaction-wise. My veins are massive though. I tried once and had to call it off within a minute. I want to try looking away. I seem to function better if I look away.
