What is it?
Blood donation is a voluntary procedure that can help save lives. There are several types of it and each one of them meets different medical needs.
How blood donation works
Donating blood only takes around 15 minutes, but in fact you spend at least an hour for the whole process (which includes a personal interview, recovery time and free refreshments).
The main type is the whole blood donation. During this donation, you donate about a pint (approximately half a liter) of whole. The quantity of blood possessed by a person is influenced by gender, weight and other factors blood (about 4,5–6 liters for an adult).
The blood is then separated into its components: red cells, plasma and sometimes platelets.
Blood components
Blood is made up of a number of components; It is usually separated into its individual components or parts, so a patient can be given the particular component they need.
This makes the most of every blood donation, as the components in one unit of blood (or one donation) can be used to treat different patients.
Each of these can be used to treat many different conditions.
How blood is used
Blood or the components of blood are used to treat patients with medical conditions, such as anaemia, cancer and blood disorders. The donations are used as well during surgeries.
Types of blood donation
The main types of blood donation are:
* Blood – a standard donation, consisting of whole blood ( plasma, red and white blood cells, platelets, antibodies and other components)
* Plasma – separated from the other components by a special machine, the red blood cells are returned to the donor in cycles throughout the donation. The whole process is standardly divided in 4 parts.
Blood types
The 4 different blood groups are:
* A * B * AB * 0
Each type is either Rh-positive or Rh-negative.
0 negative blood can be given to anybody if necessary (also called “the universal blood type”), but it is always preferable to match the exact blood group to prevent dangerous reactions.
The importance of blood donation
It’s a really important thing to do because through your gesture (lasting about 15 minutes), you could save someone’s life. Donating blood it’s although an healthy action for your organism. In addition to being a gesture of great generosity towards others, giving is good also for those who donate, for both their bodies and their minds: donating blood periodically means undergoing free medical check-ups. Yes, donating blood can be an alternative, but equally an effective way to keep an eye on your health (and especially your cardiovascular system).
Although a single donation can burn up to 650 calories, as the body has to “work” to replace it. When you donate, in fact, the body consumes energy to synthesize new proteins, red blood cells and other components to make up for the deficit due to the donation.
Last but not least, every time you donate, you can help save even 3 or 4 recipients. And this is the most powerful benefit you can get. When you sit there in the chair and offer your arm, you are making a gesture of great importance.
Survey results:
How much do people know about blood donation? By this survey composed of simple questions we can see it, NUMBER people with different ages and nationalities answered these questions;
You can observe that most people (considering this survey) have never donated blood; more than half have decided or at least considered the choice to donate blood in the future. This last figure is very reassuring if we consider the young age of the survey participants.
Each country has different rules and procedures for donating blood, get informed and donate if you can!
Check here the official website for donating blood in Greece
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