Do You Donate Blood To Control Your Hematocrit?

eazy

Well-known member
Donating Blood To Control Hematocrit

TIL about donating blood to control hematocrit from Kurt Havens.

The decision to give blood should only be based on four markers from your labs hemoglobin, hematocrit, platelets, and ferritin.

If hemoglobin and hematocrit are just slightly above the range but platelets are normal and ferritin is normal you don't need to give blood.

If platelets are high yes you should give blood because that is what's going to cause the clotting issue but you also probably need to see an infectious disease person to find out why your platelets are high.

If hemoglobin and hematocrit are high, platelets are normal and ferritin is high blood should be given as well because ferritin being iron will oxidize and can start to destroy your heart or kidneys, pancreas. Those are all rare situations.

If someone's constantly giving blood then they'll drive the ferritin low which will make you anemic. Anemia is actually deadly versus having a hematocrit and hemoglobin one or two points above the range is not deadly.

It's much more of a risk just to arbitrarily give blood because of those two markers.


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I donated in the afternoon and had fasted blood labs drawn the next morning at 0700 and it made zero difference in anything.

I still donate occasionally for the charitable aspect
 
I donated in the afternoon and had fasted blood labs drawn the next morning at 0700 and it made zero difference in anything.

I still donate occasionally for the charitable aspect
Anyone that’s lucky enough to get your high quality blood, likely feels like Captain America after the transfusion.
 
I think the need to donate is very overblown. Those who live at the highest altitude on earth (Peru, 16,400ft) have HCT in the 70’s and an extremely low incidence of stroke, kidney or liver disease.
 
I donated in the afternoon and had fasted blood labs drawn the next morning at 0700 and it made zero difference in anything.

I still donate occasionally for the charitable aspect
This 👆
I did three 500cc therapeutic phlebotomies in a few weeks. Didn’t do 💩
I had to stop all AAS 3 months ago to get it down, and it’s still out of range. I’m awaiting approval from my insurance company to get my CPAP. Check out my testosterone after 3 months off all gear:
IMG_8829.webp
 
This 👆
I did three 500cc therapeutic phlebotomies in a few weeks. Didn’t do 💩
I had to stop all AAS 3 months ago to get it down, and it’s still out of range. I’m awaiting approval from my insurance company to get my CPAP. Check out my testosterone after 3 months off all gear:
View attachment 20480
I think CPAP will help a lot! It helped min tremendously living at high altitude in Denver.
 
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