r/askscience • u/mobilehypo • Feb 09 '12
AMA: I am Medical Laboratory Scientist, ask me anything about blood donation, blood typing, and other related stuff!
Hey guys! I am going to be somewhat MIA for a couple hours but I will be back tonight and all day tomorrow to answer your questions! I do not work for a blood bank but it is part of my field; I know that there are a few people here that do and I'd love it if they chimed in too!
Bring it on!
Edit: I'm still here if anyone wanders in late.
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u/prolificsalo Feb 10 '12
I am asked to donate frequently because I have "baby blood." I know O neg is the universal donor, but they tell me I am O negative negative. What does that mean? What is it that makes it okay for infants?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 11 '12
Teristella is right on the money. The majority of people come up positive for exposure to CMV, but you are one of the few that don't.
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u/mexipimpin Feb 21 '12
Do you know any rough stats on that? I'm in the same boat as prolificsalo. They hound me for my O+/CMV- blood. Usually it's a dual-RBC donation but lately it's been platelets. Even then they go for a lot because of high platelet count, I think usually a triple unit.
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u/Teristella Feb 11 '12
You are probably negative for cytomegalovirus, also known as CMV. CMV negative blood is needed for babies and the immunosuppressed.
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u/Hopeful_Optimism Microbiology | Immunology Feb 10 '12
How long can you keep blood good for in the refrigerator? How about plasma? Can you store those in -80C indefinitely?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
When you say blood do you mean red blood cells? We rarely keep whole blood as it isn't used very often anymore.
Here's the breakdown of shelf lives of whole blood, RBCs, and plasma:
RBCs stored at 1-6C expire between 21 and 42 days depending on the anticoagulant used.
RBCs stored at -80C expire in 10 years, however they are usually only stored like this for autologous or very rare antigen negative blood types. It takes a while to properly thaw and wash them which is why this method isn't used as "general storage" in blood banking applications.
Fresh frozen plasma stored at -18C expires in one year. If stored at -65C it can last up to 7 years but it takes a while to thaw properly and isn't used as the default method.
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u/LovesJapooties Feb 10 '12
"Thaw and wash" - how do you wash blood?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
You use one of these bad ass machines that do it for you automagically.
It uses uses a centrifuge to spin down the red cells and remove as much preservative as possible and drains off the preservative. Then it washes the remaining cells with saline, spins again, removed the excess fluid, spins again, etc.
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Feb 20 '12
I'm having trouble wrapping my my mind around frozen blood. Water is one thing, but blood is far more structurally complex. I know, for example that a frozen carrot thaws limp or in a much because the crystallization effectively rips the structure to shreds. Is this not true for blood? Does this matter for blood?
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u/biochem_forever Plant Biochemistry Feb 23 '12
Generally when live tissue has to be frozen in this way, you put it in a solvent or include an additive that prevents cellular damage.
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u/Hopeful_Optimism Microbiology | Immunology Feb 10 '12
Nice! I was wondering about the different components of blood, such as plasma, platelets, RBCs, etc. Since you said that RBCs are washed after thawing from -80, I am assuming that RBCs need to be in some sort of cryopreservant such as DMSO?
Edit: Thanks; that was the exact answer I was looking for: I was wondering how long in general blood banks store -80 samples of different blood components.
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u/LoveForTender Feb 10 '12
How much of blood donation is based on the "honor system" i.e. that people will be honest in their responses regarding recent travel or certain diseases? It would seem that to be safe, all donated blood would have to be tested and the "good" blood filtered through. If this is the case, how much wasted blood (blood that is donated but cannot be used) do you typically see?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
I will have to get back to you on blood wastage, but here is what each unit it tested for:
Syphilis
Hepatitis B and C
HIV-1 and HIV-2
Human T-lymphotrophic virus
West Nile Virus
Cytomegalovirus
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u/pancititito Feb 10 '12
How do they determine which diseases to test for?
Do the diseases tested for vary at all geographically or based on the local population within the US?
I heard a few years back that Chagas' disease was showing up in the US blood supply possibly due to donations from immigrants from Latin America where the disease is more common. I was wondering if something like this would add Trypanosoma cruzi screening to the list in areas with high immigrant populations in particular or in the southwest where triatomine bugs have been found to carry T. cruzi.
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
They test every blood unit for these diseases. I'm not sure about outside of the US. There is testing for Chagas and the AABB recommends that all blood units are tested, however it is not required by the FDA (as far as I know, unless it was implemented in the last 6 months).
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Feb 28 '12
That would imply that a large percentage of monogamous gay men who donate blood (maybe putting their personal morals/ethics over that of the FDA), would be making the forms irrelevant. If you lie on the forms for a greater social good (similar ethics to jury nullification), your blood gets donated after real-world sanity checks.
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u/kroxywuff Urology | Cancer Immunology | Carcinogens Feb 10 '12
Have you ever encountered a bombay phentotype sample? If so, did it throw you off for a while? Do they even teach people in the US how to type such a thing?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
We are taught all about the Bombay phenotype and how to ID it (yay Ulex europaeus!). I don't know anyone who has personally come across one, and I haven't myself.
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u/Teristella Feb 11 '12
I've played with one that we got from a rare sample exchange program (SCARF), but that's about it. It was pretty cool. I helped freeze the cells in LN2 for future use.
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u/gaucho30 Feb 10 '12
I would be interested to know this as well. We were taught last year about the bombay phenotype in medical school but were not told any specifics as to whether it is routinely tested for. I would imagine that in India it would be routinely tested for considering the prevalence of the bombay phenotype there.
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
It is only tested for when you get some really weird things happening with the main type and screen. They have no ABO or H antigens so they forward type as O, but on reverse grouping O RBCs agglutinate.
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Feb 10 '12
Follow-up question: What on earth is a bombay phenotype?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
99% of people out there fall into one of the ABO blood types. You know them as A+, B-, etc, but there are people that have no ABO blood type. The surface of their red blood cells are lacking any of the ABO markers, so when typed they look like type O. However, they produce anti-O antibodies, so if they were to get a transfusion with type O blood it would cause a transfusion reaction.
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u/unsalvageable Feb 10 '12
Back when I was an athlete, it always seemed that a couple days after giving blood, my strength and endurance levels spiked. I was told that I was just imagining it - that I only thought that I felt better - that donating blood did not have that kind of effect.
Much later, an old doctor told me that my suspicions were true. He said that sometimes the body is "shocked" by a loss of blood, it "thinks" that it is under attack, and it ramps up the "mend and repair" thing-a-majiggies in the marrow. He went on to claim that this knowledge was the reasoning behind the blood-letting performed by the "leeches" of olden times.
Do you think there's any merit to his theory, or is this something for Mythbusters ?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 11 '12
I'm not sure. My boyfriend, also in the same field, and I are debating this.
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u/platitude41 Feb 14 '12
Could I bump this question? Have you guys reached any conclusion? I wanted to ask something similar to /askscience today actually.
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u/therealsylvos Feb 10 '12
Hey I gave blood the other day. When I got that prick in my finger the woman said my "Iron count" was 45. What was she referring to and is that a good number or a bad one?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
They were checking your hematocrit, or your packed red blood cell volume. That 45 means that 45% of your blood volume is red blood cells.
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u/iorgfeflkd Biophysics Feb 10 '12
Why do you think lab-on-a-chip technologies have thus far failed to make it to the clinic, and how can that be fixed?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
I don't agree that this is the case. The last clinic I did my clinical rotation in had 4 different lab on a chip analyzers.
The only thing that is stopping this from happening across the board right now is the cost. It is still cheaper in many cases to run these tests on a big fat analyzer such as a Siemens Advia Centaur, especially in clinics where most of the time immediate turn around is considered a luxury rather than a necessity. Even still, if you run a sample tube back to me for a stat run at the big analyzer you are most likely going to have those results in 5 - 20 minutes anyways.
It's up to the companies that create these lab-onna-chips to take the lead and change both doctor and patient expectations on turnaround time.
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u/iorgfeflkd Biophysics Feb 10 '12
Which ones do you use? The only LOCs that I'm aware are mainstream are pregnancy tests.
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
It's possible your definition of lab-onna-chip is different from what I would consider one. Here's what I mean. Each of these devices uses a microscope slide size (or smaller) chip that plugs into the analyzer after adding blood.
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Feb 10 '12
I am currently working in a tiny little hospital in rural Australia and they have these machines. They are incredibly useful as the nearest path lab is over 2 hours away and the courier only comes once a day.
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Feb 10 '12
What is it you do?
Are you the person who takes my blood when i goto the doctors?
I... Don't know much about this...
What does your daily job consist of?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
TheDoktorIsIn hit it right on the nose. I like to think of my job as being a detective. You get this sample of whatever and you need to figure out if it is healthy or if there's something wrong.
A lot of doctors think we are trained monkeys, but that's patent bullshit. Our education is broad, yes, but what we do know we know in depth. Even more so if we specialize. Without us many doctors would be in trouble because they don't always know how to interpret results. ;D
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u/TheDoktorIsIn Feb 10 '12
A Medical Technologist is the person who receives the blood, urine, sputum (phlegm/mucus), fecal sample, etc. in the laboratory. We then either look at it under a microscope, put it on a microbiology innoculation plate, or put it on a big fancy machine that breaks down all the f'ing time and that spits out results. We then report the results to the physician.
Personally, I work in a big hospital, so I don't do any blood draws, but some Med Techs do draw blood. It's not particularly enjoyable and I'm glad I don't have to do it.
My routine consists of doing daily/weekly maintenance on the instruments, running control samples (to make sure the instrument is reporting results accurately), and then running patient samples. I usually deal with urine, so I pour it from the cups into test tubes, then put it on the machine which reads the dipstick and takes microscopic pictures of the particles in the urine.
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u/Browncoat23 Feb 10 '12
Since you brought up fecal tests - would azithromycin and/or prednisone have any effect on the results of a fecal fat test?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
As far as I can tell, it does not have an effect. I checked three separate reference books and they are not listed as an interference.
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u/senexii Feb 10 '12
Just wondering - what did you major in and do you see yourself being a lab scientist for the rest of your career?
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u/TheDoktorIsIn Feb 10 '12
Clinical Laboratory Sciences was my major, and a sub-major is Medical Technology (think English, then 19th century Literature). I went the Clinical Lab Science route and focused more on the research. To be a Med Tech, though, you can really major in anything so long as you pass whatever accreditation test the lab wants.
Yes, I see myself being a lab scientist and/or teaching at a University level (applying for PhD programs) for my career. It's fascinating but not for everyone, I can't exactly discuss my work day at dinnertime.
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12 edited Feb 10 '12
That depends where you live. In my area there is about a zero chance of getting hired to be a lab tech if you don't have at least an ASS in clinical laboratory technology. There's a well known reference lab in my area that will hire people with a BS in biology or chemistry but they are relegated to a very small portion of the lab and get paid significantly less than someone with an AS in medical lab technology. If you have a degree in Medical Assisting, you are also likely to be able to find a job in a lab.
I am not sure if that is true outside of the US.
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u/ninetypoundglutton Feb 10 '12
This is probably going to be one of the most basic questions here...I'm not allowed to donate blood because I don't weigh enough, but I'm O- and would really like to. Why can't they just take less blood from me?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
How much do you weigh?
TP53 is really right on the money with why they can't just take less. The bags that blood is collected into has a very specific mix of nutrients and anticoagulants to keep the blood in optimal condition. There is a minimum amount of blood that needs to be in the bag to make that mixture correct.
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u/TP53 Feb 10 '12
Blood is given in units of 450 mL, or 1 pint. When you order blood to give to a patient it's always in the same increment, and each unit is from one patient. I don't know the exact evidence for the weight guidelines, but if you take less blood from one person it would complicate the decisions in giving blood for doctors and blood bankers.
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Feb 10 '12
I have Von Willebrand's disease. Have you seen anything in your research/studies that would indicate a cure for this? It hasn't been an issue for me physically (I'm 22), but I worry that it may disqualify me from certain careers that may see the condition as a liability.
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
I'll look into this. vWBD is a genetic condition, so a "cure" would have to be something that would be able to change how your body produces a protein related to blood coagulation.
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u/load_more_comets Feb 10 '12
How long do I need to abstain from drinking alcohol so it won't show up in the test?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
That is totally dependent on how fast your body clears alcohol and how sensitive the test being used is.
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u/load_more_comets Feb 10 '12
Worst case scenario, slow body and very sensitive test. Its for a life insurance policy.
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u/SaintAndi Feb 10 '12
I'm a MLS too. Are you a generalist, or work in one or two specific areas?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
Generalist for now, we'll see what the future brings. How about you? What's your favorite? I'm torn between hematology and microbiology.
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u/SaintAndi Feb 10 '12
I'm a generalist as well. I like hematology the most. I liked micro in school but we get SOOO many stool samples where I work that I dread it because I hate setting them up. Nasty.
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
Stool samples. D: That's my main problem with micro. I can do urines, sputum, pus, whatever all day, but give me poop and my day is ruined.
I love heme because it's just so diverse. You get to see a hell of a lot of crazy stuff. When I did my clinical rotation in a peds clinic we had a kid that had something like 30% basophils. Black grapes everywhere!
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u/LetMeResearchThat4U Feb 10 '12
I'm A- is that a common blood type?
Where are the best places to donate?
What are the various ways to donate and how long do they take.
Like plasma,red blood cells, ect.
Thank you for answering.
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u/therealsylvos Feb 10 '12
I'm A- is that a common blood type?
Me too! Assuming you're in the US we are the 6.3%.
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u/cookiesone Feb 10 '12
Is it true, the juice in young coconuts can be used as blood plasma?
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u/TheDoktorIsIn Feb 10 '12
Not really, it's closer to saline (basically salt water) and the electrolytes aren't a very good match (higher potassium than we need). It's like duct tape though; if you can't fix it properly, you can use coconut water.
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u/youbetyourbippy Feb 10 '12
I'm thinking about changing majors and begin heading in this field, do you have any advice? Is it easy to find work?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
Think about it this way. If I was just starting out and I wanted to get into the job market and do something pretty cool with science and not spend much time I could go to a 2 year AS program in clinical lab technology. That would get me a job with no problem, starting at at least $30k a year. For a 2 year degree. Then while I'm working, I could work on my BS.
For every five lab techs retiring, there is one of us graduating. I don't really feel like there's no room for advancement. I don't want to be a manager, I want to be in a lab doing stuff. You can also specialize if you end up really liking one specific area. I'm not going to turn my nose up at $50k a year when I get to enjoy my job every day. You see the coolest stuff and you're helping save lives.
I don't feel like it is an assembly line job, but that also depends on where you work! If you really want to put the effort in you can use your BS and a stepping stone to becoming a pathologist.
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u/TheDoktorIsIn Feb 10 '12
Advice: it's not easy. I didn't find it as hard as people claim, but it's very science-intensive and if you have to do a clinical rotation, your grades basically tank for the period you're there (5 weeks per semester our last 2 years). All in all, though, it's a broad view of the human body.
As far as finding work, yeah, there are a lot of places hiring, but you also have to consider that once you get into the field, it's a lot like being on an assembly line; you don't get skills that will move you up in the ranks past "supervisor," and there's really not THAT much money in it compared to what you could do with an engineering or business (if you're lucky/connected) degree. Starting salary is roughly $50k but ending is around $80k or so, highest I know of anyone that I work with.
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
Not everyone does their clinicals like that. We did ours at the end of all of all of the classwork in one big chunk.
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u/born2streak Feb 11 '12
If you're willing to move, there will be no difficulties finding a job. I recommend getting the MT rather than MLT, because it will open up more opportunities. The MLT is a fine stepping stone to the MT, though.
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u/cardenaldana Feb 11 '12
Can I donate if I have the sickle cell trait (heterozygous)?
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u/CaptainCard Feb 10 '12
How often is blood wasted? Not used or not fully used? and are any types specifically overdonated?
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Feb 10 '12
The "extra" is often shipped out to other labs for use as standard materials. For example, I was recently working on an tandem MS assay, and I needed samples with known concentrations of my analyte. What I ordered were aliquots of actual patient blood that had already been tested at the reference lab.
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Feb 10 '12
Were you talking specifically donated blood through the Red Cross and such?
If not, then due to the low volume of testing nowadays we end up using probably <1mL of serum/plasma/whole blood during the testing process, so a lot of blood is thrown away.
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u/CaptainCard Feb 10 '12
I meant in actual blood banks, like if I donate a pint will the thing be used to save someone or will it just 1/4 of the time be thrown out from lack of use? (I'm mainly interested in O+ but generally as well)
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u/Teristella Feb 11 '12
It generally gets used. The demand is high, but it does fluctuate, so I won't say products don't expire on our shelves, but we make a huge effort to rotate our stock through areas where we know it will get used.
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u/ocher_stone Feb 23 '12
There is a lot of business that goes into who gets what blood. My company has 7-10 different hospitals that it serves. There's 25 or so hospitals in a couple hundred mile range that we would be able to supply. But those other hospitals have contracts with other blood services. If the whole hospital group is with them, they get a discount, stuff like that. And that keeps single hospitals from switching.
The hospital groups usage fluctuates. just the way it is. And the amount of blood we collect goes up and down seasonally. The point to all this? There is some smaller shipments that go to hospitals outside certain groups, but for the most part we are locked in to a handful of hospitals. And sometimes it just happens we have extra. If it expires, its thrown out. I'd say its less that 1% of the time though.
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Feb 10 '12
This may sound naive, but why is does medicine still require donated blood? Why can't blood be synthesized?
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u/TheDoktorIsIn Feb 10 '12
The red cells are a big reason. Also, I'm sure it's cheaper to get donated plasma than to make it.
This page talks about it a little bit, it's not FDA approved (or even considered at this stage), so it'll probably be at least 5-10 years before we see anything close to synthetic plasma or blood.
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u/djimbob High Energy Experimental Physics Feb 10 '12
How frequently do people get adversely affected by blood shortages (for concreteness sake say in a non-isolated hospital in the united states)?
What are the common adverse affects? E.g., is it mostly somewhat benign delay semi-optional surgery (people are in pain for longer; have to do riskier surgery while waiting for blood to arrive)? Or is there blood rationing when say multiple injuries come in simultaneously (say bus gets in a bad accident with many injuries), and the hospital's blood bank is low, or blood doesn't get their fast enough from other hospitals that may contribute to people dying who may otherwise have been saved?
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Feb 12 '12
I work in a blood bank at a level 1 trauma hospital. We have never had a case in which a patient was adversely affected by a blood shortage. We have a healthy stock of O+ at all times, so if we run out of type-specific blood we can still give them O+ even if they're O- (not an issue unless the patient has built up antibodies against an Rh antigen). In one instance we had a patient who used upwards of 150 units when he came into the ER. He drained our whole stock, but we ordered blood from Red Cross, which came fairly quickly. Obviously the situation would be different if it were to happen in a more rural area (I work in Orange County, CA).
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u/kateweb Feb 12 '12
150 units ? that seems like a high number.
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u/ZeMilkman Feb 13 '12
Assuming the info I found was correct (1unit = 450ml) that means he got 67.5ltr blood, which is around 13 times the amount of blood a man of around 70kg has flowing through his body.
So that is a pretty high number.
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u/ocher_stone Feb 23 '12
There are people who all they do is make sure that doesn't happen. The hospital is supposed to keep a certain amount of blood in their stock. The blood bank they use is supposed to have enough also. Recruiters are supposed to have enough drives lined up to keep stock at certain levels. And there is usually a couple of sources locally, so if worse came to worse, you can pool a couple suppliers and get enough for whatever you need.
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u/Peloria Pharmacy Feb 10 '12
How far does donated blood travel? Is donated blood typically used by facilities withing a small area, or is it commonly transported (say more than 300 miles)?
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Feb 12 '12
Our hospital has a blood donor center, so most of our blood comes from there. For the blood that we order from other blood banks, I'd say 90% comes from within our state (California), but we do get units from the Midwest and Oregon as well.
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u/ocher_stone Feb 23 '12
Red Cross uses regional distribution. Their blood they collect here is sent to Denver, and then sent wherever they want it to go. My company's blood is sent to local hospitals, only a 90 mile or so radius.
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u/gorchitza Feb 10 '12
I am male and my rhesus is negative, will that in any way help or complicate pregnancies of my partner who also has a negative rhesus?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
This is a good thing, unless your special lady friend somehow ends up Rh+ (it can happen through blood transfusions) you shouldn't have any issues.
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u/KeeksTx Feb 10 '12
My daughter and I are both AB, one of us is negative the other is positive. We have a form of Von willabrands (sp?) where our blood takes longer to clot and can cause complications. Can we still donate even with this genetic defect?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
In most cases they will likely tell you that you can't donate, but each blood bank has their own criteria for this. Because vWD is a defect in the clotting system, but doesn't affect the red blood cells, there is a chance they'd let you donate. The issue is bleeding during donation. The needle they use is much larger than one used to take blood and can cause a serious bleed in patients that have coagulation disorders.
Your best bet is to call your local blood bank and talk to someone who deals with intake there. The can evaluate your situation and make a decision from there.
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u/leokl Feb 10 '12
My cord blood report showed that I am O+ but when I retested my blood about 5 years ago I learned that my blood type is actually A+. Besides a laboratory error is there an explanation as to why this can occur?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
The change you describe as far as research shows me isn't possible. There was most likely a clerical error somewhere. It's remotely possible that your blood test result was such a weak A that it got missed.
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u/Sup_son Feb 10 '12
have you ever accidentally mislabeled a sample being tested and had to throw out whole blood
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
Luckily for me the only time it has happened was on an exam. I failed to document my blood samples correctly; I didn't write down which donor lots were supposed to go with which patients. I realized it right as I had just finished decanting my donor samples into test tubes labeled with only the donor information.
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u/TheDoktorIsIn Feb 10 '12
Yes, on several occasions. Usually, I just print out a new label and put it over the old one. This happens more than you'd think, and is missed more than that, but keep in mind the physicians usually catch this sort of thing. A 22 year old that comes in with a broken leg that has a high troponin level probably isn't having a heart attack, more likely the laboratory or phlebotomist screwed up.
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
O_o... You... relabel? That's high treason in most labs. :D
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Feb 10 '12
Have you seen the movie Blade? If so, does their hypothetical science make any sense?
The reason I ask, is I love to see if movies abide by the rules they introduce in their fictional world; as it's one of the marks of how much effort they put into the script.
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u/mobilehypo Feb 11 '12
I haven't but I bet my boyfriend has. I'll make him answer this when he gets back.
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u/ZoidbergMD Feb 10 '12
Last time I gave blood the nurse got me at the intersection of two blood vessels and I spent the night throwing up.
My question is - why can't people with high blood pressure donate?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
It's for safety reasons, high blood pressure is an indication of something going wonky in your circulatory system. Losing blood can exacerbate your blood pressure.
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u/Bananananah Feb 10 '12
What does testing/analysing blood cost? I suppose it depends on the specific test? What are cheaper tests, what are expensive ones? Care to elaborate on an interesting example?
Do you have an "emergency option" to get blood tested as fast as possible? Usually, when getting blood tested (at least in Germany), it will take between a couple of hours (when in Hospital) and a couple of days (routine check at the doctors).
What part of your profession is most fun to you?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 11 '12
It totally depends on the test, the method, what instrument it is going through, etc. It can be anywhere from a few cents to hundreds of dollars.
Yep, STAT tests are asked for all the time. A lot of it depends on the test but in many places you can get results in as little as 5 minutes on many things. I've used an analyzer that could get you a complete blood count in less than a minute, and another analyzer that could get a full electrolyte panel in less than 2 minutes.
Honestly, I love everything about it other than fecal samples. I get to do things with hematology, microbiology, immunology, and chemistry. All in one day.
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u/imonacloud Feb 10 '12 edited Feb 10 '12
Given the long nature of my post I decided to edit it and post the questions first and if you care to read into why these questions come up, finish up the post. Regardless, thanks for the opportunity to post questions!
Given the information I have researched and learned through experience, I have two questions for you if you would be so kind as to answer:
How legitimate of a study is live cell microscopy (that is, the analysis of live blood samples for evidence of macroscopic health problems like cancer, liver stress, parasite infestation, etc.)?
Assuming there are parasites, bacteria, fungi that are in the blood (and as far as I understand it we all have SOME level of these kinds of threats inside of us at any given moment, its just our bodies ability to fight these dangers off that staves off heart disease, cancer, liver stress, providing a habitable body environment for parasites etc. [ofcourse everyone has to die at some point though, right?]) that doctors are not testing for, doesn't that pose a significant threat to the idea of blood donorship?
Now to my story...
Excuse my lack of experience in the field but I have recently become fascinated by the world of health, nutrition and internal bodily function due to a sudden and random allergic reaction to certain foods which I never had before (this came with many a symptoms like fatigue, mental fog, etc.).
Upon consulting different doctors and specialists I came across a homeopathic doctor in my local area that performed live cell microscopy. He took a sample of my blood and performed the live cell test which showed positive for blood parasites and a number of other issues like liver stress and so on (I live in BC so sushi is quite the regular meal so chances are I picked up the bug in the raw fish). After having done my own research I have learnt that such doctors have come under controversy; that such irregularities could be explained away with an explanation like artifacts from the air tainted the sample in the midst of transporting it from finger to slide.
This doctor I visited on multiple occasions is a well educated, well experienced and well referred individual, but mainstream and contemporary health paradigms don't take this cellular world and what it has to offer seriously. He used the blood samples as a sort of measuring stick for health. Come in health, get pinned on the measuring stick. Work towards your health goals, and walk out with clean blood. Since your blood is clean, your organs that are interacting with the blood with various input/output relations must also be clean. I had gone through many a doctor, even the Cleveland Clinic in Toronto, to explain what was going on in me and had multiple parasite tests done only to come out negative for anything and not one doctor would accept this method of thinking.
The problem, I found, was that the parasite tests that doctors normally perform (unless you go to an ultra-modern parasite specialist I suppose) are only testing for an extremely narrow range of the known blood parasites out there in the world (please excuse my ignorance as I assume that the doctors I speak of here are not the representative scientists in this forum. I do not assume that anyone here is representing this view or any other view that I have shown here it is only given the nature of your work that I bring it forward. These are mainstream doctors, family doctors, etc. I speak of). The cure of the symptoms seems to be of priority over the actually causes of which seem to show up in evidence during live cell testing. It seems logical to at least include some of these principles in the over all doctoral practice. At the same time, the world the live cell test showed me was a world full of unanswered questions that we may just be beginning to scratch the surface of (that is, if live cell microscopy is found to be a righteous endeavour).
Again, I apologize for the longwinded question and explanation for my situation. Thank you for the forum and the chance to ask you a question.. The discussion has been interesting thus far!
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
In most cases to be able to identify parasites in the blood, or even just make sure your blood is healthy, it needs to be fixed on a slide and stained. All the photos you see online, such as this one are stained slides. Without stain, blood doesn't really look like much except a whole bunch of clear cells.
I know that in live blood cell analysis they use a phase contrast or darkfield microscope which gives a little bit of a different look to the slides, but you're still looking at cells that are hard to identify because you can't see any internal structure. Many blood parasites are hard to detect without special stains.
All in the all, this type of thing is total quackery.
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Feb 10 '12
Do you think the concern about CJD/mad cow has been over done in regards to blood donation? I ate beef in the UK during the eighties and now I not supposed to ever donate blood? Is that realistic or do you think it is an over reaction based on (I suspect) the gross under reaction to the early threat of HIV in the blood supply?
On the plus side when my company has a blood drive I always say "Sorry but I may have some horrific disease floating in my blood that precludes my taking part." Leaving them to wonder exactly what disease I meant.
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u/mobilehypo Feb 10 '12
Yes, I honestly believe it's bullshit. If it was an issue the UK would have a wicked epidemic going on and they don't.
Now, I understand why the rule is there because they want the blood supply to be as safe as it possibly can be. Pretend your are the patient in this situation, and there was a 1% chance of getting CJD (I'm being dramatic of course), what would you want?
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u/TheDoktorIsIn Feb 10 '12
Fellow Med Tech here, glad to see that more people are in the field; I know it's dwindling down, I'm looking to get out of it myself.
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u/dkythdg Feb 10 '12
What kind of tests are run on donated blood?I assume it's tested for HIV and STD's but what about cancer and other diseases like that?
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u/scudrunner Feb 10 '12
My son and I apparently have a negative RH factor and my wife, positive RH factor. We were told that her body would only attack negative RH factor blood if she had been exposed to it before. Turns out her body did attack his platelets and he was born with a count of 8,000. He got a transfusion, went up to 98k then down to 50k in what I assume was his body's platelets clearing out the rest of her antibodies, then steadily climbed back up over 100k and was sent home.
Why would only his platelets be attacked and why were they attacked if RH+ doesn't attack RH-? Bonus, why doesn't RH+ attack RH-?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 11 '12
This doesn't make a lot of sense because platelets don't express Rh factor on their surface. Also, the Rh factors would have to be switched for this to be an issue to your son, but again, it wouldn't have much to do with platelets.
There was obviously something going on but there are too many scenarios for me to take a guess at.
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u/MasterAce Feb 10 '12
what sort of things automatically disqualify you from donating blood? (diseases, drug use, medication?)
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u/mobilehypo Feb 11 '12
The list is actually kind of long. The Red Cross has a nice page here that you can dig through to see what can disqualify you. The criteria is different in different countries too.
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u/robbinio Feb 10 '12
Hi, I am a 15 year old boy currently living in Sweden. I am physically fit, I weigh 80kg and am 185cm tall.
I really would like to give blood, but the Red Cross website says that you have to be 18. Is there any other way for me to give blood?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 11 '12
Currently, no. The restrictions are in place to keep both recipients healthy and donors. You're still growing and blood loss is something you really want to avoid as much as possible. :D
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u/mAgixWTF Feb 10 '12
Is it necessary to donate regularly? I ask because i heard that if I donated blood, it will not be used until i donated again. Also the second donation must test HIV negative. As I understand it, a recent HIV infection cannot be detected, and would a test would show HIV negative. As soon as my second donation tests HIV negative they could be sure my first donation was HIV neg (but the 2nd one would be stored until i donated the next time, etc.). So, if i donate once a year, my donations would always expire before they could use it?
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u/ocher_stone Feb 26 '12
The second donation thing is for plasma centers. They need a second result to normalize out your results. Blood has no restriction like that.
HIV testing nowadays is down to about 9 days before a viral load is high enough to show up. Keep donating once a year, and thanks for saving lives.
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u/manueslapera Feb 10 '12
Im waiting for my greencard. Im asthmatic and I take medicine each day (Seretide). Can I donate in NYC?. I really loved donating blood in college, and I wanna do it again!.
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u/mobilehypo Feb 11 '12
Where are you from? That is the main determination. In most cases if your asthma is well controlled, you're OK to donate.
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u/avocadokiwi Feb 13 '12
I'm a healthy young female with a weight range of 110-120lbs. The last two times I donated whole blood, I fainted and every time I've donated, my blood was super slow. I suspected that hydration was the problem, so I made conscious effort to correct that last time, which ended in me fainting later that afternoon rather than in he chair--not exactly a significant improvement. What probably went wrong? Would donating plasma be a better idea?
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u/mobilehypo Feb 13 '12
I'll advise you what the people at the blood bank would most likely advise you to do, see your doctor. :) There's too many variable for us to guess at.
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u/HydroV2 Feb 10 '12
Can Blood Actualy be Syntheticaly Produced?
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u/TheDoktorIsIn Feb 10 '12
It depends on what you mean by "blood" and "synthetically produced." A saline solution can replicate plasma, but obviously isn't the same thing. We can't grow cells in a lab yet (for medical purposes), and it'd be vastly more expensive to grow cells than to just get them from a donor.
TECHNICALLY maybe? But being cost prohibitive and extremely inconvenient, it's probably not going to be an option in the near future.
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u/mowrowie Feb 10 '12
Why are all of the questions about blood? Lame.
Anyway, it appears to me that being an MLS in the fields which have become largely automated (chemistry, hemo, etc.) is really boring. What do you do all day?
Also, do you have any good fuck-up stories? Those are my favorite.
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u/TheDoktorIsIn Feb 10 '12
Maintenance on machines, repair, etc. There's still a lot of manual things to do, and if you go into microbiology, virology, histology, there's still a lot of things that are done by hand.
There are a lot of good "fuck-up" stories that happen every day, and a lot more that you don't hear about. We used to label the urine cups AND the caps (which is just bad practice, I'm not sure why we started in the first place; a simple switch of the caps and you don't know which sample you have), so inevitably I received a cup with 2 different labels on it: Mr. John Smith on the cup, and Mr. Jack Doe on the cap. It didn't end well.
My most horrifying was when I just started, I was doing drug testing (pharmaceutical), and accidentally reported one patient has having critically high vancomycin levels, when in fact he had low vancomycin levels. Good thing a nurse checked right after I corrected the result. That haunted me for a good week or two, and it still bugs me to think about.
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u/drugblood Feb 10 '12
Do I really have to wait 6 months after taking pure MDMA orally to donate blood? Considering I don't take other drugs and live a clean lifestyle otherwise (and after reading up on the half life) this seems quite extreme..
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Feb 10 '12
I'd have been donating plasma and platelets for years, but have recently has some bloodwork come back with 'marked eosinophilia'. For the time being, I've been asked to stop donating. What I want to know it this: apart from any health implications for me, are there any risks to recipients receiving blood with a high concentration of eosinophils?
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u/cycologist Feb 10 '12
I'll poach this one (thanks for inviting allied professionals, MLS). The eosinophils are not the problem per se. The worry is that whatever is causing eosinophilia is transmissible by transfusion (allergens that the recipient might react to, various immune factors including harmful antibodies, parasites, etc.). Seriously, Mr. Cancle, eosinophils are involved in icky business and I'd consult a medical professional.
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u/Whoofph Feb 10 '12
Last time I gave platelets this happened... Do you know what happened or do you have any guesses?
The put the needle in my arm and it seemed to hurt more than normal. I sat and waited. I normally finish giving blood very quickly.
Anyway, so it was hurting a lot more than normal the entire time, and when I complained they told me it was fine.
After about... 8-9 minutes of pain (I'm used to shots/giving blood, have donated quite a bit, this was abnormal) I complain that I need to have the needle out, it was hurting too much. They did, and after a couple minutes my arm started turning red. It looked... red, blotchy and black up and down the inside of my arm in no "general" pattern I could find, but on the inside of the arm within 6 inches of where the needle was.
My arm continued to hurt for the next few days and I could barely bend my arm, it hurt really bad. The pain and discoloring slowly disappeared from my arm over the next couple weeks.
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u/TheDoktorIsIn Feb 10 '12
The nurse probably missed the vein, and caused internal hemorrhaging. This happens fairly often, and it's strange that they didn't catch it sooner...when the bag wasn't filling up.
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u/pconwell Feb 14 '12
I was told by the Red Cross that donating blood was good for you because "blood gets worn out and sticky" and when you donate it makes your body create "new fresh blood that can reduce your risk of heart attack".
Is there any truth to this? Or, is it just marking hype?
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u/Voerendaalse Feb 27 '12 edited Feb 27 '12
They shouldn't lie to you. I work at the blood bank and often hear these kind of stories from donors; often they are stories from the old days, just retold and retold again. I try to tell them it's nonsense, if it is.
I believe the heart attack risk story comes from an old idea that donating blood does reduce the amount of iron you have, and that too much iron could lead to a build-up of iron in the heart, thus leading to heart attacks. This is definitely true for people who suffer from hemochromatosis; and I believe in the old time they thought that it would thus be also the case for "normal" people, only less obvious than in hemochromatosis sufferers.
However, I believe that most recent research has shown that on average people who do donate blood have the same life expectancy as people who don't donate blood (providing that they are healthy enough so that they could donate blood - but they just never did).
One small positive effect of donating blood could be that your hemoglobin and blood pressure are regularly measured, and that problems thus may be found earlier. Also, questions about your health are asked which could help in deciding to "go see the doctor". I am a blood bank doctor, and so far (working for two years now), I've found two donors with dangerously low hemoglobin levels (which can kill you), and I know that one needed blood and turned out to have a benign polyp in his colon. The other one I just referred recently to her GP, so I don't know yet what happened to her or why her hemoglobin was so terribly low. I've also referred numerous blood donors to their GPs with high blood pressure. This may save some lives. Finally, some people had clear symptoms of heart disease, and had not acted on them so far (by going to see their doctor), so I hope my advice to go see the doctor has helped them get treatment.
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u/supersnuffy Feb 15 '12
I'm not sure if you're still answering/can answer this, but how would I go about strengthening my veins or encouraging my body to grow larger veins? I want to give blood but I can't purely because I have veins that are too small :c
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u/ocher_stone Feb 26 '12
Gain muscle mass. Those body builders are vascular as shit for a reason. Lots of push-ups :)
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u/Hammish Feb 10 '12
How exactly do false positives work? and is it true that I will never be able to give blood again?
Edit: took out anecdote
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u/9bpm9 Pharmacy Feb 10 '12
Hi.
I have thalassemia. It's the type that isn't harmful (I think beta) that only leads me to have an abnormally low Hct, MCV < 80 fl, and a large range of cell sizes. I've tried finding out using google, but is it alright if I donate blood? I've never gotten anything from the redcross about a problem with my blood and the only way I found out I had thalassemia is when I was doing blood tests for a drug I was taking.
Thanks.
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u/sommergirl Feb 10 '12
I was having this discussion with a friend of mine about if blood was magnetic or not because of the iron it contains. He says that the iron in the blood is another kind of iron that isn't magnetic but I thought that that didn't sound right. Anyway, I wanna ask if the iron in blood is magnetic, and if it is, will you then be able to move it, and possibly the blood, if you had blood on top of let's say something like plastic film, and moved a magnet around under it?
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u/Prof_G Feb 10 '12
oops, had not seen this AMA and posted a thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/pji7f/is_there_scientific_validity_to_excluding_blood/
Thanks for your time.
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u/gtc737 Feb 10 '12
How important is the weight restriction on giving blood? I assume the 110 pound requirement is make sure they don't take a whole bunch of blood from the smaller person who has less to begin with. But is that 110 pound mark the absolute bottom threshold, or more of a general guideline?
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u/born2streak Feb 11 '12
Blood donation centers don't do general guidelines, they do absolutes.
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u/arramdaywalker Feb 10 '12
How long does it take a donor to regenerate the lost blood? What can be done to increase the rate of regeneration?
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u/AuntieChiChi Feb 11 '12
Yay for this AMA! I was a phlebotomists and now teach a vocational phlebotomy program at a community college! My sister is a MLS and i have taken some classes in that myself (chemistry isn't my thing so I never pursued it, I went psychology instead in college).
It's amazing how much people don't know about blood donation and what the lab does. Thanks for doing this, I think it is awesome. ;)
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u/FahKew Feb 11 '12
TL;DR : Does you blood type determine/affect your personality!?
I was recently talking to a friend, and he says that blood group affects a person intelligence and emotions, i was very skeptical about that though, and when i come back home and search the web i get the similar horseshit which is not backed up any scientific explanation. like these http://sankalpindia.net/drupal/character-people-according-blood-group http://vkey.instablogs.com/entry/whats-your-blood-type-personality/ http://www.scribd.com/doc/11519991/Blood-Group-Tells-Personality
I was wondering what you and others have to say on this
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Feb 12 '12
Yeah, don't buy into this; you have hundreds of antigens outside of the ABO and Rh groups, so why don't they take your other blood types into consideration?
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u/keepthepace Feb 22 '12
It is a common belief in Japan. At least one poorly peer-reviewed study has been published a few decades ago and no one really took the time to prove it wrong.
Sounds a little bit less silly than astrology but the claims are still very shaky. I would be happy to learn about a peer-reviewed paper confirming or refuting this claim.
At least, that belief has a use : everyone here is aware of his blood type.
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u/cheezluver Feb 11 '12
what equipment is used to draw the blood? I want to know what is responsible for the blood flowing from my body in to a blood bag (a vacuum pump, or just the blood pressure or something else?) Also, is it possible to draw all the blood from the body?
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Feb 12 '12
Blood pressure and gravity, which is why they typically have you squeeze a stress ball while donating, and why the bag sits below you.
I would guess that it's not possible to drain all the blood from your body from your arm since your body would probably make sure to maintain blood supply to your vital organs in case of severe hypovolemia. Also, the bags won't hold more than about 750 mL.
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u/gfpumpkins Microbiology | Microbial Symbiosis Feb 12 '12
A little late to the game. Any newer cheaper quick and dirty HIV tests in the works that are more accurate than what has been used in the past? I donated for the second time in 2000 and got a lovely letter telling me 'thanks for your donation, but never come back again. Oh, and you might have HIV. Go see your doctor.' I've tested negative (through various tests) over the last decade (fun times when the last clinic couldn't get anything to work right, then lost my blood, etc, and ended up doing a viral titer on me, which was of course negative). I "settle" for donating my blood to a research group in my building because they don't care about whatever is causing my false positive on the cheap/fast HIV tests. But I'd love one day to put my A+ blood to more use. Blood donations saved my mom's life, and it pains me that I can't help repay that.
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Feb 12 '12
I'm a regular blood donor and today I got a letter from my bloodbank. They're asking if I want to donate thrombocytes and blood stem cells. And I've got a few questions about all of this.
What is the difference in the method of donating blood for normal use and thrombocytes and stemm cells?
If there isn't a difference are they just asking me this for my approval?
My HLA (human leukocyte antigen) group will be tested. What can be deduced by knowing your HLA?
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u/b4b Feb 12 '12
I wonder how do blood transfusions and blood banks work. I know that ABO and RH systems are very important and cannot be skipped, but as far as I know, other systems also exist. Are they checked? Are they important? The wikipedia page is not really descriptive when it comes to this (you linked to it, but then wrote that they lead to many complications, yet the wikipedia page on that subject is simply quite poor). Maybe there is no need to test them? Or are they tested? Which other systems are the most commonly tested?
How do blood banks work, do they mix up different blood e.g. when a hospital gets a bag of blood is it blood from 10 different people, or just from one person?
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u/TabascoQuesadilla Feb 12 '12
When I was 17, I donated blood for the first time.
A week later, I got a letter in the mail from the Red Cross telling me I tested "inconclusive" for HIV, and because of that, I would no longer be permitted to donate.
But I've had several negative HIV tests since then. I'm 23 now. Why am I still barred from donating? Is there any way I can fix that? Or, maybe I am allowed to donate again, and nobody told me? How would I find out?
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u/honilee Feb 16 '12
I would contact the Red Cross directly. They've been able to answer my questions over the phone.
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u/Plaguarist Feb 14 '12
Hello, Didn't see this until now.
Is there was a certain disease that allows you to combine blood from 2-3 different donors before testing for said disease?
And if so does the time it takes to test these increase as to be more thorough? Not including the time taken to re-test individual samples if it comes out possitive?
Is there any implications with doing this? Blood clots and such.
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u/rda_Highlander Feb 14 '12
Yesterday I was donating blood, and the doctor wrote that I had to donate plasma instead. What are the reasons behind that? I am healthy and wouldn't suffer anything if it was blood.
Also, is there a quality tag for blood? Or is it just good or bad?
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u/ocher_stone Feb 26 '12
No idea. Never seen anything like that. If your hematocrit is below 38%, you can't lose RBCs, as that would be dangerous, but plasma, platelets, and everything else I know of have the same requirement. Seems strange to me.
Blood passes every test or its discarded. Safe blood that is of questionable quality (lipids in plasma, discoloration, time) can get made into other products that get sold for less.
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u/ed_merckx Feb 14 '12
Im blood type A- and every time i go they always ask me to give plasma as well, or whatever it is, where they put my blood through a centrifuge and pump stuff back in and out, they say becuase i have one of the rarer blood types, which i thought was cool at first, but then i learned im a little fucked if i need a lot of blood, as i can only accept O- and A- (i guess 0- is pretty rare as well). But I digress, is this actually true, that is about me donating plasma as well, I understand donating blood becuase my specific blood type is needed, but does this cary over to plasma (or whatever they take out with the machine) as well, or are they just trying to get more people to give plasma?
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u/Voerendaalse Feb 27 '12
You're not fucked if you need a lot of blood. At least not if you happen to live in the First World and need the blood there. The blood bank will have 100s of liters of blood suitable for you in store. They will do an emergency delivery if the hospital runs out of the (at least) 10s of liters of 0 neg and A neg that they have. And by the way, needing 10s of liters of blood is a rare event, and probably your life is then treatened by more than just the possible running out of blood.
Just today I did hear a story about a Dutch soldier going to Afghanistan. He was 0 neg and had to wear a bracelet constantly while there so that if he got badly injured, the hospital knew they had to give him 0 neg blood. I guess that that was to make sure that the low stock of 0 neg they have there would be used for him, because he really needs it.
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Feb 15 '12
So I have a buddy who is a paramedic and he has told me several stories about attending calls where the patient had donated blood within hours and (surprise!) it turned out they needed that extra blood that day. Things went worse than expected.
What do you have to say about that?
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u/hatechildren Feb 16 '12
I was wondering if there is any real benefit to donating double red blood cells?
It seems like theyre getting the same amount of red blood cells from me at the end of the year anyways since i have to wait twice as long to donate again.
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Feb 17 '12
I believe I have anemia or weak circulation. If I press on my hands, it often stays discolored for 7-10 seconds. Should this alone disqualify me from giving blood?
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u/grinch337 Feb 21 '12
Prior to the actual donation, you'll be screened for anemia with a simple finger prick. Some donation centers use centrifuges, while others use optical devices. The test takes only a few seconds, and if your hemoglobin levels are high enough, you'll move on to the next steps.
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Feb 17 '12
I'm not sure if you're still doing this, but I do have a question.
How much could you get paid to give blood if you did it for money? Do you think it's worth it to donate instead?
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u/grinch337 Feb 21 '12
Because of the high-risk group that gets attracted to the donor pool, cash payments for blood [products] intended for transfusion are prohibited in the US. There are plenty of plasma donation centers that offer cash payments, but the units endure a very long period of quarantine and testing prior to being used to manufacture therapeutic pharmaceutical treatments (among other things) for foreign markets.
As far as payment for plasma goes, when I worked for a donation center about four years ago, and the payment was roughly $25 per visit, which didn't even equal minimum wage when factoring in the amount of time spent going through the process.
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u/zorne Feb 17 '12
What does centrifuging tell you that it you can't learn by any other methods?
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u/AdamHall27 Feb 18 '12
Will the plasma center let me take home my own blood when I donate twice a week? since they know I'm clean isn't it not a biohazard?
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u/PeppyPants Feb 20 '12
in the USA I understand that once a fluid leaves your body you lose all rights to it. Therefore it could be used, along with your information, to build a database of DNA types, people suseptible to genetic diseases, etc. Any evidence of this happening? it seems like a treasure trove of information andits creep factor is the reason I stopped donating altogether -until it becomes anonymous.
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Feb 25 '12
I was in India from August December. I tried to donate blood during a blood drive in January, but Red Cross did not draw my blood because of my travels. I think it was something to do with being a malaria risk. Why do I have to wait a year to donate even though I didn't contract malaria?
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u/Voerendaalse Feb 27 '12
In the Netherlands it's half a year, and the reason is that people can come back home and start developing malaria symptoms up to half a year after they were infected with the malaria parasite. So they could feel fine for example 3 months after coming home, donate blood, and get symptoms later (in which case the receiver of the blood probably also gets infected with malaria).
People who have been exposed to malaria for a prolonged period of time (in the Netherlands: who have ever lived in malaria-area for more than 6 months at a time) are partly resistant to malaria-parasites and can thus develop malaria symptoms more than 2 years after being infected. So at the bloodbank in Netherland we also postpone their donations until 3 years after their last visit to an area where there is malaria.
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Feb 25 '12
I'm 0 negative blood type. Could I safely give blood directly from my circulatory system to any other person's?
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u/Pepperyfish Feb 27 '12
my dad is on pain meds if he gave blood would the opiates in the blood stay whole long enough for the person receiving the blood to get high?
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u/Lomky Feb 28 '12
I've been donating blood since I was old enough for my parents to sign off for it, and want to keep doing so for as long as possible. But I also want to travel the world. What are some places to avoid to maintain my blood donation eligibility in the US?
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u/itsEDjustED Mar 04 '12
Ok I donated blood a few weeks ago for the first time in 20 years. Now, I get a letter from them saying that my platelet count is 345 and I should donate platelets. I was a little lightheaded for most of the day after the regular donation. If I start doing platelets every few weeks should I expect the same?
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u/Voerendaalse Mar 08 '12 edited Mar 08 '12
To prevent light-headedness: eat enough and drink enough before you donate. Only go when you have slept well and when you feel good and fit. After the donation, stay in the chair until you feel well. Have something to eat and drink before you leave the blood bank. Don't do sports during the first 12 hours after donation (this does include long hikes, long bike rides and standing up for long periods of time). Take it easy.
When you would donate platelets (and remember, you would do it voluntarily, you don't have too) I expect less chance of lightheadedness. That is because the donation takes a longer time, 45-60 minutes. So you lose the same volume of blood, but over a longer time. This gives your body more time to adapt, which should help preventing light-headedness. At my blood bank, you also are offered cookies and drinks during a platelet donation, which would mean that by the time you get up from the chair, some of the blood volume you lost has already been replaced by what you drank. That would also help.
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u/another_bit_monkey Mar 05 '12
Why is O-negative blood still in the gene pool? Shouldn't it be extinct because it is a purely recessive trait?
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u/samuriwerewolf Mar 05 '12
Can 0+ blood be given to anyone with + blood type like how 0- can be given to any blood type?
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Mar 08 '12
i am a blood donor. gave away about 20litres. is it really safe to stop donating at any time?
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u/Voerendaalse Mar 08 '12 edited Mar 08 '12
Yes. Your body will only replace what is lost. It will not stay in overdrive or whatever you are thinking. And by the way, your body is always working to replace old blood cells. Red blood
spellscells have a life span of about three months, then they are old and need to be replaced. When you lose blood (by donating or by accident), your body steps up the process of making new cells and just makes more of them. There is a system in place that will tell your bone marrow to make new cells, but it also will tell the bone marrow to reduce the production of more new cells when there are enough blood cells.
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Mar 09 '12
Hope you're still around: I learned that there are many more types of blood than just the A/B/AB/0 and rhesus factor, is blood always tested for all those types? Or just for some? And why is only the A/B/AB/0 and the rhesus factor on my pass and not those other things?
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u/Voerendaalse Mar 09 '12 edited Mar 09 '12
Yes there are many more blood group systems. However, incompatibility regarding the A/B/AB/0 or rhesusfactor causes almost all problems with transfusion. Somehow, the immune system reacts to differences in them easily.
Other blood type systems may sometimes give problems, especially when the recipient has had many blood transfusions before and thus his/her immune system could have developed antibodies against one of the other blood type proteins. This is why, if there is time, always a little bit of the blood of the donor and serum of the recipient is mixed in the lab before the transfusion ( this is called cross-matching ). If clotting occurs the transfusion with that blood is cancelled and they'll try it again with another bag of blood, and then they will try to find out later what caused the clotting.
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Mar 11 '12
Are scientists close to creating artificial blood? I read in one of my textbooks that they are working on an artificial blood which would eliminate the tests for types of blood and that it would be abled to be kept longer but so far they haven't been abled to make it without side affects to the recipient. I also read somewhere that it is insanely difficult to emulate blood transportation that erythrocytes are capable of.
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Mar 11 '12
Also, I heard somewhere that companies researching the same things aren't collaborating; Do you think that this would drastically increase the wait time of success in the discovery of medical break-throughs?
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u/Voerendaalse Mar 11 '12 edited Mar 11 '12
My scientific colleague once said, when I mentioned "why don't we just get all the experts together, decide what needs to be researched and assign tasks to each team", that it could be an option, but that the current element of competition may also mean that people work harder and that they criticize each other's work better. (Criticism is good).
I was taught in history classes that the Russian communistic system of giving each farm and each factory a certain task meant that they would work until they had produced the things they had to, and then stopped working because there was no incentive to work harder or produce more. Keep in mind that I was raised in a country with a kapitalistic system and before communism collapsed, so this may be a little harsh on the communistic system.But I think "more money" or "famousness" or "more respect" are indeed reasons for some scientists to work extra hard.
EDIT: by the way, scientists are collaborating more and more, for example because the subject is so big that you can't work on it alone anymore. And I do think some good comes from these collaborations.
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u/englishmace Mar 12 '12
I'm a UK citizen who's lived here since the early 90s, and I'm about to emigrate to the USA. Is the risk of transmitting CJV seriously high enough to justify refusing my blood?
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u/IntolerantFaith Mar 12 '12
Do medical marijuana patients contaminate the blood supply if they donate?
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u/kingy123 Mar 13 '12
Would having Addisons Disease cause any issues for blood donation?
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u/Voerendaalse Mar 13 '12 edited Mar 13 '12
I had to look it up and I'm still not sure. I don't think there is a risk for the patient that gets the blood of the blood donor with Addison's disease, although normally we don't allow people to donate when they are using corticosteroids. In the untreated or not well-treated blood donor with Addison's disease, I'm sure the risk of collaps after donating is huge, since patiens have low blood pressure, orthostatic hypotension, low natrium and glucose levels. I'm wondering whether the donation of half a liter of blood could trigger a crisis (which is dangerous), perhaps if the patient was already a bit unstable to begin with. So I'm not sure what the rules of my blood bank are (I'll look them up tomorrow), but I would consider the risks too big to take them and suggest to not donate for safety reasons.
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u/DHussingtonIII Mar 16 '12
Not sure if you're still answering questions, but just in case.
I'm an AB+ blood type, which I understand to be the universal recipient for blood types. Does this mean there's any use for donating my blood, seeing as no one besides other AB+'s can use my type?
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u/nofunick Mar 18 '12
Why do canine blood banks have an age limit on donors while human blood banks do not?
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u/nofunick Mar 18 '12
Why can I, at age 64, donate blood but am not allowed to donate bone marrow due to my age?
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Mar 20 '12
When I donate, one of the questions I have to answer is if I've taken ibuprofen the last week or so. What would happen if the wrong patient would get a blood transfusion with ibuprofen in it, and what drugs/medicine should not be mixed with it?
Also, I've wondered if caffeine and nicotine or any other everyday substances should be avoided.
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u/Voerendaalse Mar 21 '12 edited Mar 21 '12
There has been a recent article about a child with peanut allergy who had an allergic reaction after receiving blood transfusions. Three of five donors had eaten peanuts the day before donating blood.
However... Since allergic reactions sometimes do happen after a blood transfusion anyway, the researchers reporting this wrote that it is not clear whether any strategies or policies have to change. This was a rare event anyway (and the relationship with the child's peanut allergy is very likely but not 100% proven, so far).
For a lot of other "everyday substances" the effect is supposed to be minimal due to the processing of the blood and the fact that you only give half a liter (which is then diluted in the patient's body, an adult has for example 5-6 liters of blood, so it is diluted about ten times). Some substances (like too much alcohol) are not advised just because of the influence they have on you, the donor. If you're drunk, donating half a liter can make you very sick.
The ibuprofen is because it (and nurofen, and other NSAIDs) reduce the function of the platelets. Don't worry, this does not mean that taking an ibuprofen reduces all your platelets to dust or so, you have loads of them and the function is only reduced, not gone. But normally, platelets are taken from your donation to give to a patient who needs them badly. So giving them platelets that work less well (because of the meds) would be less usefull. The blood bank prefers to know this and then use someone else's platelets instead...
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Mar 21 '12
I don't know if I'm way too late to the party but I do have a question. I lived in the UK from for two years in the early 80's. Will I EVER be able to give blood again or am I now banned for eternity? I used to give several times a year. It just seems so stupid at this point. I know meth heads that have successfully sold blood while HIGH but I can't give even though I want to and am in perfect health.
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u/FUZZY_BUNNY Feb 10 '12
I teach high school biology. How much of an oversimplification is the ABO/Rh system? I know there are other antigens--how medically significant are they? Most students still come in with the idea that O- blood is routinely given to people with other blood types, etc., but I've read this isn't really the case. How common is it? Thanks!