I had never heard of that and did not find any article supporting that from a quick search. I found observational studies concluding that men who donate blood are less at risk for heart attacks, but did not control for selection bias (men who choose to or can donate blood are healthier) or for causes associated with the blood donation (e.g. you might discover you have high blood pressure while donating and seek treatment afterwards).
https://www.webmd.com/men/features/too-much-iron-in-your-blo...
Asked because not asking is apparently stupid but the question isn't.
It wasn't a stupid question, it was an enlightening question, and your "stupid" question would not have sparked further discussion if you'd not asked it.
Thanks for proving the quotation right.
I do concede that there are dumb questions, of course. Although typically I like to say, there are no dumb questions but there are dumb times to ask questions.
Also I just doped a 1KG block of iron on my head from 1mm distance and it didn't hurt me. Then I cold rolled the block of iron into a 4x4m sheet of metal and I was unable to carry it around for more than a few seconds. Your answer is not only useless its also demonstrably wrong.
Maybe just maybe the question is stupid.
They stop laughing after that.
Your blood volume is replenished in days, where as replenishing your iron stores takes longer.
Things like atherosclerosis reduce the space available for blood and increase the pressure without the body realizing the setpoint needs to change, thus why pressure increases.
Volume issues, especially difficulty processing waste/removing excess fluid (renal failure or disfunction), can pop up, but reducing volume as a solution is kind of like taking gas out of your gas tank because your throttle keeps getting stuck and you don't want to run anyone over.
Yeah, it can kinda help maybe (and if you're desperate you should do it), but it isn't really addressing the underlying issue. Sometimes you don't have time or the ability to address the underlying issue, but it shouldn't be the first thing to go to.
Not ridiculous that say excess iron or blood volume could be an issue or help if addressed - just not a high odds thing to be tackling usually.
Studies have shown that, in general, Americans tend to consume more iron on a daily basis than is necessary for good health. Ingestion of quantities of iron beyond a certain quantity can promote formation of free radicals in the body. Free radicals have justly earned their reputation for causing cellular changes which can disrupt normal cell function and increase the risk of certain chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. This is more likely to be a problem for men and post menopausal women...
https://medicalwesthospital.org/january-is-blood-donor-month...
I'm American. If you aren't, that might be a factor.
It seems that there is some correlation between cardiovascular risk and blood donation, but this might just be due to a confounding factor: healthy people tend to donate blood more.
E.g. this study [1]:
Despite the significant difference in QRISK2 parameters between study groups, none of these parameters was correlated to the extent of donation when controlling for age, BMI and smoking status.
Or this one [2]:
No significant associations were found between blood donation and the risk of myocardial infarction in analyses restricted to men with hypercholesterolemia or those who never used antioxidant supplements or aspirin. The study results do not support the hypothesis that reduced body iron stores lower CHD risk.
Ironically this other Dutch study [3], shows an association (not causal) between frequent blood donation and cardiovascular health in women but not in men.
[1]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28797569/ [2]: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/01.cir.103.1.52 [3]: https://heart.bmj.com/content/105/16/1260
Once women reach the age of 50, about the age of natural menopause, their risk for heart disease increases dramatically.
https://www.webmd.com/menopause/guide/menopause-heart-diseas...
Wouldn't the hormonal changes associated with menopause be a more likely explanation for the increase in heart disease risk than the fact they are no longer losing blood periodically?
The average lifetime risk of developing cardiovascular disease was around 52% for men and 39% for women.
Lifetime risk jumped to 69% for men and 50% for women who had two or more cardiovascular risk factors by age 50.
Lifetime risk was just 5% among men and 8% among women who had optimal risk factors for cardiovascular disease at age 50.
https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20060206/how-great-...
It would be ironic if medieval doctors who "bled" patients to cure them had actually been on to something all this time.
I got O -ve so I maintained >45 Kgs weight(min required) so I could donate when needed but my bones couldn't take it (Osteoporosis, Achondroplasia) and so now I've reduced my weight to 40 Kgs; It was bummer to hear donating lowers risk of heart disease although I wish it was true as its a win-win for donating blood.
The mother and child's blood supply remain separate throughout the pregnancy. Some mixing can occur during childbirth (which is why Rh- women can have one baby that's fine and the next one gets ill).
But I would add that we already know that female menstruation impacts certain specific disease processes, such as heart disease. Men get advised to donate blood to lower their risk of heart disease. Women who are still menstruating don't need to do that.
Covid is known to impact the blood significantly. Blood differences between men and women could play a role in difference in outcomes between men and women for this condition.
Women who have been pregnant become chimeras. They get cells from the baby that stay in their system. They also share a blood supply with the baby.
I have a serious and incurable congenital disorder. I'm convinced my two pregnancies were hugely beneficial to my long-term health for a long list of reasons, possibly including having cells still in me from one child who did not inherit the disorder.
So I'm interested in this topic for personal reasons and I've read a bit about such things over the years and I think it's probably hugely more complicated than this article suggests.