Cleaning your blood by donation.

[Kedas]

There were some news messages recently that the amount of toxic products in our blood is rising. (some say risky, some within tolerance)

 

I was thinking if blood donation would help reducing ANY unknown toxic in your blood.

 

I did some simple math

You can give about 10% of blood with pauzes of minimum 16weeks.

0.9^6=0.53 so in about 6*16weeks or 2years I would be able to cut the percentage of toxic producs in my blood in half.

This is obviously assuming that there are no new producs added during that time and that they are present in my blood.

 

Is the body itself cleaning your blood in some way? (I mean products that aren't suppose to be there, like some metals: aluminum, lead, etc..)

[Douglas]

I've read that the red blood cells replace themselves about every 3 months (I think). Not sure if that helps cleanse the blood.

 

Anyway, I also read that if you go on a 3 day diet of fresh juices (not pasteurized) like carrot, beet, Kale, apple etc that it will cleanse your entire system, blood, liver being two of the most important.

 

I have a juicer at home, never tried the 3 day thing, but every 6 months or so I make fresh juice everyday for about 2 weeks. Among my favorites are wheatgrass and carrots.

 

If you're on a health kick, you might want to "google" the benifits of wheatgrass.

[Mokele]

The liver and kidneys already cleanse the blood of toxins, and that's actually one of the primary roles of the kidneys. Every time you urinate, you're simply releasing toxic byproducts of metabolism that your kidneys cleansed from the blood. The liver have various ways of detoxifying things, producing steroids, lipids and protiens that act against various chemicals (which if why alcoholics often get liver damage).

 

Basically, your body already does a very good job and so long as you don't add too many new toxins, it can keep up and eliminate most of them.

 

Mokele

[morner]

First off, the 'cleaning' you describe should really be modelled as a differential equation, so it will take somewhat longer than 6 donations to bring blood toxicity down to 50%. I'd figure out how long it'd take, but I'm tired and can't be bothered with solving a DE just now. Or ever.

 

Then there's the issue that the toxins in your blood are water-soluble, so your body will be excreting them all the time. Assuming the levels of toxins are constant, or even increasing as you say, this implies that you're ingesting enough toxin that no number of blood donations will clean you out.

 

If by "products that aren't suppose to be there" you also mean the far more insidious fat-soluble toxins we're all exposed to, then again the blood donation wouldn't really help; those products dissolve in the lipids found in all your cells, not just in your blood. I'm not an anatomist, but I imagine the number of 'other' cells in a human body vastly outnumbers the number of blood cells. While removing blood would remove some of those poisons, you wouldn't get rid of anywhere near 10% of them for each 10% blood you disposed of. Your detox course would therefore take a much longer time to reach even the suggested 50% mark, if it even got that far at all.

 

Finally, all that blood you're donating goes somewhere. Is it ethical, assuming your initial assumptions to be correct, to deliberately and knowingly give other people your poisoned blood?

[Douglas]

Finally, all that blood you're donating goes somewhere. Is it ethical, assuming your initial assumptions to be correct, to deliberately and knowingly give other people your poisoned blood?

Yeah, good point, I guess Kedas should go to a barber that still practices blood letting....

[Skye]

I'm sure if you need blood bad enough to get it transfused the small amount of metals in it isn't going to bother you.

[Celeste22]

I get the "blood letting" done once a month for my hemachromatosis.

Because of the high iron, there is a restriction and I can not donate it.

 

If someone's blood was really toxic, especially with heavy metals, I would imagine that they would be in the same boat as me.

Here's a list of who can and cannot donate.

http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/12233.cfm

[Douglas]

I get the "blood letting" done once a month for my hemachromatosis.

How do you square hemochromatosis, with the large intake of vitamin C ?

 

Interesting non doner list.

[Celeste22]

Originally posted by Douglas

How do you square hemochromatosis, with the large intake of vitamin C ?

 

On my blood test last week, so far, so good.

One of the tricks to controlling hemochromatosis other then phlebotomy is through diet. I rarely eat meat nor do I eat veggies high in iron and I never take C around or at meal times.

I also drink tea and coffee throughout the day to limit my overall iron uptake.

 

Like I said in the Vitamin C post, I'm going to start reducing my C intake just to be safe now that the whooping cough is gone. As long as my serum ferritin levels remain as low as they are now, I feel C is really safe.

 

On a more scientific note:

 

Although there has been some concern that people suffering from hemochromatosis (a tendency to iron overload) may be sensitive to high doses of Vitamin C, most researchers agree that Vitamin C is entirely safe in daily quantities of 10 grams (10,000mgs) or more.

 

Robert Cathcart, III, MD (orthomed.com) :

My clinical experience would indicate that vitamin C increases iron absorption when iron is needed. It seems to increase excretion of iron when there is an excessive amount of iron. Therefore, vitamin C might be a good treatment of hemochromatosis.

 

Selva Kumar, MD

I have managed many cases of iron overload because I see many Thallasaemia trait cases where the older patients usually have anemia but high ferritin levels. I continue giving 30 grams sodium ascorbate infusion weekly or biweekly for their chronic conditions, yet their ferritin DID NOT INCREASE and you see improvement in their anemia, with added folic, vitamin E and oral vitamin c at 3 to 6 grams per day.

 

My apologies if I offended anyone by changing the subject in replying to Douglas.

[YT2095]

My apologies if I offended anyone by changing the subject in replying to Douglas.

 

not at all, we blame Douglas completely and hold him entirely responsible

 

IIRC isn`t EDTA or a variation of it also used medicinaly to "Lock-Up" heavy metal ions in the blood too? I seem to remember reading about this somewhere as a treatment in more severe cases.

[Royston]

Going back to the OP, I gave blood just yestarday and although the nurse didn't go into too much detail, he described it as 'getting an oil change'. Your body is self replenished with oxygenated blood and it is 'very good for you'.

 

All blood is tested before it's used and there is a very stringent questionaire and interview to go through before you give blood (or atleast there should be)...and obviously the main concerns are blood carrying diseases such as hepatitis / aids and malaria. Again all blood is tested, and the few toxins that are present that havn't been treated by the kidneys are little to worry about if your blood could save a life.

[insane_alien]

yay someone else with haemachromatosis! i've never met anyone else with it except my mum.

[Douglas]

not at all, we blame Douglas completely and hold him entirely responsible

Guilty as charged.... and my apologies to Kedas....

[Celeste22]

Originally Posted by YT2095

not at all, we blame Douglas completely and hold him entirely responsible

 

Thanks! I'll gladly be sent to the "SFN dog house" next time Douglas.

 

Originally Posted by YT2095

IIRC isn`t EDTA or a variation of it also used medicinaly to "Lock-Up" heavy metal ions in the blood too? I seem to remember reading about this somewhere as a treatment in more severe cases.

 

Yes, but it's mainly used by alternative practioners. EDTA works, but it also chelates other minerals without sole discretion to iron like the pharmacutical drug Desferal does.

Desferal is specifically formulated to bind with iron so that the iron can be excreted in urine, and is the drug of chose for chemical chelation in hemochromatosis. My ferritin was around 1032ng/mL in the beginning.

I think chemical chelation is reserved to those that are well over the 1000 mg/mL.

Instead of chelation, my doc suggested monthly phlebotomy for a year and using things that inhibit iron absorption like fiber and tannins found in tea, coffee, purple grapes and grape juices, rices, walnuts and cocoa.

If my levels stay down (at 350 ng/mL now), I can lower my "blood letting" to 3 times a year or less until menopause.