Much like every celebratory and respectable thing, we have a day dedicated to blood donors around the world for a very good reason. So, Happy World Blood Donor Day!
Do you know how many lives a blood donor can save by donating a unit of blood? Three adults or six children, at least, as one unit is segregated into four components – red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma and platelets. It’s a credit worth getting, isn’t it?
People need blood every micro-second but unfortunately, in summers, in May and June to be more precise, India witnesses a dry spell in blood banks as major donation comes from young student volunteers from universities and colleges, who are on vacation in these months.
For such emergencies, scientists are trying to create artificial blood but haven’t succeeded yet. Well, not sure if humans can create something as organic as what’s naturally gifted but we can certainly share some interesting facts about the subject that you never knew.
Some of the facts related to blood and blood donating are so mind-boggling, you may consider donating a unit right away! So, go ahead, read, donate blood, drink your chai with Parle G and be proud!
1. Did you know donating blood is good for your heart and can reduce cancer risks?
Regularly donating blood can maintain the right thickness and stickiness of your blood, which makes blood flow easy and in change improves heart health. And iron-stores in blood is one of the main reasons for cancer and donating blood reduces it, hence, reduces the risk of cancer. Also, most of the donated blood is used for cancer patients.
2. You can burn 650 calories while donating so, it’s a no workout day for you!
That’s more than what you burn in a 30-minute run.
3. In emergency cases, coconut water is used by professionals as plasma.
However, blood and coconut water are not identical, coconut water has about one-fortieth the sodium level of plasma, while the potassium level is 10-15 times higher.
4. A man has already saved 2 million babies because of his rare blood group. Your turn!
An average person can save 1,000 lives in a lifetime by donating blood but James Harrison had a rare blood group that saved 2 million babies with a condition known as Rhesus disease.
5. Your body has 0.2 milligrams of gold in it. It’s in your bloodstream!
You had a feeling you were gold, didn’t you?!
6. Your body can replace the fluid lost in blood donation within few hours. Superpower much?
Fluid in few hours. Red blood cells in four weeks. Well, that makes sense as your donation includes about 2.4 trillion red blood cells.
7. Mosquitos love blood type O!
Your skin secretes a chemical signal that can detect your blood type and attract mosquitos. Mosquitos love type O way more than type A as per a research.
8. Two types of blood donations exist – whole blood and apheresis.
With whole blood donation, you give the blood and then it’s separated into four components and used for different people. In apheresis, only platelets and plasma are extracted by the machine and the remaining blood is pumped back into the donor’s body.
9. There’s no upper age limit for donating blood!
As long as you are healthy and below 66. Just FYI, women donate more blood than men.
10. You have to give an eligibility test for donating and you might fail.
You may flunk because of issues like low haemoglobin, antidepressants and seasonal infection.
11. You only donate 470ml of your blood at a time.
Just a pint.
12. Blood has a shelf-life
…35 days.
13. Dogs have more than a dozen blood type.
It’s not exclusive to humans.
14. Before discovering blood groups, doctors used to transfuse between humans and animals…
…that didn’t go well.
Okay, that’s enough knowledge for today!
GIFs: Giphy, Tumblr
Also Read: How to increase platelet count
Also Read: How to increase haemoglobin
