Health History Update: Fill & Download for Free

To Mark Zmolek,Dear sweet summer child:There is a blood shortage worldwide because less than 5 percent of the eligible donors will ever donate blood. I run a Red Cross blood drive every two months, which is quite successful with over 2,000 units collected since 2004, but it’s a small dent in the need.Also, there is no artificial substitute for liquid gold, a.k.a. blood.Trust me, even the World Health Organization (WHO) strongly urges — for the purpose of blood safety — that blood donors should be volunteers and should not be paid for their blood. Their goal is that 100 percent of the blood worldwide would be from volunteer donors who do not get paid. Sadly, this is not the case in some countries (e.g., India), and thus their blood supply is not as safe as it could be. As it is, some serious medical mishaps have slipped through the cracks including “mad cow disease” and the Zika virus. In the 1980s, we lost a whole generation of hemophiliacs because they were infused with blood from people who had the newly emerging HIV and AIDS disease. This was before we knew about this risky disease and long before we could test blood for it.See Kay Schwartz's answer to this question.When potential donors answer a lengthy health history, they are usually donating blood for altruistic reasons, but I guarantee you, if there were money involved, some people would lie (and have lied) about certain risky lifestyles, drugs (legal and illegal), diseases, travel to certain forbidden countries, recent tattoos, etc. In fact, my mother, who worked for the Red Cross overseas during World War II, knew of a drug addict who would regularly sell his blood to hospitals back in the 1930s.These days, hospitals in the U.S. will only use blood from volunteer (unpaid) donors, not from anyone who was paid to give blood. The bags are conspicuously marked “Volunteer Donor” — see the image below. In the U.S., any blood from paid donors (there’s an oxymoron for you!) would be used for research purposes only.However, donors can be paid for donating plasma, which can be filtered and cleansed of viruses and other bad actors, whereas the fragile red blood cells could not endure that kind of treatment.Bag o’ VOLUNTARILY DONATED bloodsource: pixabay —photographer: rdelarosa0 (Robert DeLaRosa • English_—Sarah M., posted 18 March 2019 (updated 27 May2019)QUESTION: Why is there a blood shortage? Hospitals charge around $800 per unit. Why don't they pay $250 for a donation to get more donations?

Because they may hinder your health if under reported in your medical history updates at your PCP. Many seem to think that herbal and natural supplements don't count as medications, but they cannot be more wrong about that. Substances like black cohosh used by women for ameliorating menopausal symptoms and St. John's wart for depression self remedy can have serious drug interactions with what your doctors prescribe you.

To Amita Tran,When someone donates blood, a blood bag is filled with about one pint (almost half a liter) of blood. For most people, that is one-eighth to one-tenth of their blood volume. For someone under the minimum weight (110 pounds/50 kg in the U.S.), a pint of blood would be far too much to lose at one time. It is for the donor’s safety that a weight minimum is required. See Red Cross requirements by donation type: Eligibility RequirementsInteresting point: The more you weigh, the more blood will be coursing through your body. If you are morbidly obese, your heart must pump far more blood. I’m guessing obesity is hard on the heart for this reason.I run blood drives every two months for the Red Cross, and even if potential donors are exactly or just over the 110-pound minimum, I may counsel certain donors to consider donating later after they’ve gained a few pounds, especially if they’re teens, because they need all the iron they can get while their brains are still growing.Bag O’ Blood Marked “VOLUNTEER DONOR”source: pixabay photographer: rdelarosa0 (Robert DeLaRosa • English)“Volunteer Donor” on a bag of blood denotes the blood donor was not paid. Some countries can’t find enough volunteers to donate blood, so they dangle money as a reward for donating. This, of course, brings in some people whose health history is sub-optimal, but they lie so they can get paid for their blood since they are desperate for money.In the States, if anyone is paid for his blood, that blood would be marked accordingly and used for research purposes. Donating blood is different from donating plasma, in which case people in the States are paid for their time and inconvenience of having to sit in a chair for so long. Technically, they are not actually paid for the plasma, because selling body parts is against the law in the United States. (Thanks, Phil Scovis, for the clarification.)—Sarah M., posted 27 March 2019 (updated 8 November 2019)QUESTION: Why can’t you donate blood if you’re slightly underweight?