Blood donation is free, helps the community and is the only way men and menopausal women can intentionally eliminate excess iron safely and inexpensively.

While children and menstruating or pregnant women are often low in iron (ferritin<35) and molybdenum, men and menopausal women tend to accumulate iron and molybdenum with age (unless they have internal bleeding, etc,) so that ferritin usually >80 and often>150. On the other hand, as testosterone or estrogen wane with age, copper retention decreases, so a copper and silicon deficiency is common in men and women over 50 yo. Similarly, as vitamin D production wanes with age (thinner fascia), Mg levels tend to drop, exacerbating hypertension, constipation, cramps, etc,
As the ratio (Fe+Mo)/(Cu+Si+Mg) increases, so does the risk of diabetes, hypertension, gout, cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, etc,
Accordingly, blood donation to eliminate the excess metals and supplementation with Cu, Si and Mg can help to prolong health at a minimum cost.
Unfortunately, blood banks don't check the ferritin and use only hemoglobin as the criterion for donor exclusion. So many women with a hemglobin of 14 but ferritin<35 are allowed to donate and are left without adequate iron and molybdenum reserves, while millions of men and menopausal women with ferritin>100 never donate.

I have talked about the benefits of Blood donation in this thread in some detail
Can draining blood cut cholesterol and ward off cancer?
But it's always good to remind people and hope someone reads the thread and actually acts on that information.

You in the USA are luckier because you can donate more regularly than we in the UK. For some reason our NHS BLOOD DONATION service refuse to acknowledge that there is any benefit to the donors in donation.

It's totally ridiculous the staff all have been trained to be obsequious to the point it makes you cringe.

They don't seem to grasp the simple idea that they are providing a free anti-ageing service.

They seem too stupid to realise that when you donate blood your blood pressure drops. If they encouraged people with high blood pressure to donate more often they may save a fortune on blood pressure lowering medications.

Diabetes is raging in the UK with more people being diagnosed and treated year on year.
We all know high transferrin levels associate with 2~3 times more diabetes incidence yet NO ONE ever points out the obvious fact that regularly donating blood keeps iron, ferritin and transferrin levels lower.

There should be a poster at every blood donation clinic explaining the benefits of regular blood donation to the donors. (together of course with information about ensuring your do stay iron replete)


Image from Join-Hands. org

How often can you donate in the UK?

Another great benefit is reduction of chronic inflammation (which ironically, eventually can cause anemia!)

Unfortunately, in Mexico (where I live now) and the US hypertension is an exclusion criterion for donation!
As I mentioned, most blood banks never check ferritin and are so stupid that many if not most of the donors are menstruating women, whose ferritin is below 30 and who should never donate.

All great cultures practiced phlebotomy, the Chinese, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Aztect, Inca, the British Empire, etc, unfortunately, like all therapies, some misused or abused it and it became taboo.

Ferritin is an invaluable diagnostic tool that not only blood banks, but most doctors seldom or never request. I have found internal bleeding, early stage rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and many cases of hemochromatosis thanks to it. I request chemistry 24, cytometry, general urine test, ekg, ferritin and insulin from every patient (all of that costs about 62 U$ on the saturday special in a nation-wide lab in Mexico).



A caveat about blood donation. Common deficiencies such as Cu, Mg, Si, etc, are excerbated, unless supplements are taken.

Uric acid levels are related directly to iron and molybdenum levels and inversely to copper and magnesium levels and kidney function. Moroever, uric acid levels over 5 increase the risk of hypertension, gout, diabetes, osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease, kidney damage (which in turn raises urate levels), etc,

Although medical texts state that hypertension is idiopathic (of unknown cause) they do recommend minimizing sodium intake and using diuretics to eliminate sodium (unfortunately thiazide, and other diuretics also reduce uric acid elimination and increase magnesium elimination, whose deficiency causes or exacerbates hypertension). On the other hand, it is well known that uric acid increases cell uptake of angiotensin II, which in turn increases cell uptake of sodium urate, causing hypertension.

Accordingly, using blood donation to eliminate excess Fe and Mo and taking copper and Mg will reduce urate to ideal levels (3.4<uric acid<4.1), reducing the risk of all the diseases mentioned above.

In UK Male donors can donate 4 times in 12 months with a minimum interval of 12 weeks between donations. Female donors donate every 16 weeks to reduce the risk of iron deficiency.

However in most towns the blood donation teams visit every 16 weeks so if male you have to make appointments online at different towns as the teams that come round aren't connected to the internet so can only make appointments for that centre so in practice most donors only donate at 16 week intervals.
For NEW DONORS there is an age limit Only if you have donated between the ages of 68 and 70 are you permitted to continue donating over the age of 70 so it's important when approaching 70 to ensure you don't forget to keep donating or you could lose the chance.

Fructose and alchohol consumption increase uric acid while VITAMIN C reduces it. Vitamin C also increases the ability to absorb iron.

High doses of vitamin C contribute to uric acid load.

Nettle leaf and juniper berries help to reduce uric acid. Nettle is good for the thyroid as well. Hypothyroidism contributes to uric acid elevation, so nettle plays a double role. Nettle is also good in dissolving both uric and calcium oxalate kidney stones. You just can't go wrong with nettle. Juniper berries stimulate the excretion of uric acid. Go easy with juniper berries though. It can lower blood sugar more than you expect.

Malic acid is a good way to drop uric acid levels. This is why tart cherries are so good. They are heavy in malic acid.

Molybdenum is involved in the conversion of purines to uric acid.

Alcohol increases uric acid, because it inhibits uric acid secretion, and beer has high purine content which increases uric acid.

__________________
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- Jim

‘Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.’ Sir Winston Churchill

Effect of Oral Vitamin C Supplementation on Serum Uric Acid

I should have quantified "high dose" of vitamin C. 500mg is not high dose.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C_megadosage

Hi Ted,
Most clinical trials are short lived and provide little information on long term results. 400 mg or more vit C per day increase Cu elimination (exacerbating the deficiency we experience with andropause or menopause) and enhance Fe uptake and act as an oxidant (ethanol is also an antoxidant in small doses and an oxidant in higher doses).

As I mentioned, blood donation to eliminate Mo & Fe and supplementation with Cu, Mg & vit D will prevent gout attacks and other conditions. The best additional measures for gout (and metabolic syndrome in general) are avoiding sodas and minimizing ethanol intake, drinking green tea (PQQ, epigalocatechins, etc, and reduces Fe absorption), eating dairy products (lots of protein, Mg, etc, and almost no Fe & purines), celery seed, flaxseed, beets, cherries, white meats (especially fish), taking 1.4g/d fish oil, Si, Cr, PQQ, vit B6, folate, quercetin, etc, and taking a teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate in a glass of water and hot brine baths.

Doctors often ridicule bloodletting as stupid, primitive, supersticious and absurd. However, good physicians always knew when to draw blood and when not to do it. They usually did it when it was dark red (high hemoglobin and hematocrit) and never in excess. The idiot who killed Washington hadn't a clue and is often quoted as an example of the uselessness and danger of bloodletting, whereas the thousands of people who benefitted from bloodletting are never quoted. Today phlebotomy is the treatment of choice for hemochromatosis, one of the most common hereditary conditions and which may require weekly bloodletting for a year or longer in some cases, until the excess iron is eliminated.

It is interesting that Celsus in his encyclopedia (almost 2 millenia old) states that bloodletting and drinking donkey's milk will promptly cure gout, which is perfectly true and coincides with my recomendation to consume dairy and donate blood until 35<ferritin<58. Unfortunately Celsus couldn't measure ferritin, but blood banks can, yet don't. You can find Celsus' encyclopedia in latin and english in the web.

The meta=analysis I linked to said 500 mg/d or greater of vitamin C,

I do understand some people use huge amounts of vitamin C.
I was only thinking about the usual amounts generally available.

It is interesting that physicians are as affraid of using bloodletting (blood donation) as they are of administering a blood transfusion to an anemic woman with hemoglobin of 9 or even 8 with a copper intrauterine device. Removing the IUD and transfusing 2 units in such women can enhance health enormously in a day, yet doctors sometimes leave the IUD and prefer to administer iron and vit B complex pills that act extremely slowly, while the woman continues losing blood every menstrual cycle. losing much of the blood she made between bleedings.

You probably have heard the expression women are from Venus, men are from Mars. It turns out that in alchemy Mars is the symbol for iron and Venus is the symbol for copper. Young women are often deficient in iron (and molybdenum) and have excess copper, while middle aged men and menauposal women have the opposite combination and correcting the imbalance in either case is most helpful.

A reduction of 0.35 in uric acid with vit C is by no means significant. Doing what I suggest can easily reduce uric acid from 8 or more to 4.1 of less, that is significant.

Moreover, uric acid is measured only in serum. If the uric acid were taken up by the cell (as when angiotensin II is high or during a gout attack), serum levels will drop, but overall stores may be even higher and it wouldn´t show in the study.

First, and I've stated this before, the only reason women generally live longer than men (by up to 4 years) is because they menstrate, thus eliminating excess iron from their bodies. This is also a good reason to avoid multivitamins that contain iron in any amount.

Second, vitamin C does increase iron absorption, however, this only affects iron absorbed from veggies, which is not a large amount. To put this another way, if you take large amounts of vitamin C daily, such as I, then supplement with curcumin. (400mg twice per day)

Curcumin is one of the most important health herbs there is, and should be taken for many reasons, one of which eliminates excess iron in the blood.

And finally lets discuss gout/uric acid. Of all the research I've seen, there has never been any substantial proof that gout is made by in the liver, nor is it due directly to purines...these are pure speculation with no scientific proof, and is generally found on websites such as Mayo Clinic, which is one site I do not trust, since they have ties with big business/pharma.

Uric acid is produced by certain species of fungi, and since fungus requires refined carbs for fuel, gout is made worse by consuming sugar, alcohol (fermented sugar) and yeast. (from beer or bread)

Vitamin C kills fungus.

It is quite difficult to eliminate iron once it's in your body, even pharmaceutical iron chelation agents act quite slowly and while it is eliminated in urine, the Fe damages the kdineys. You claim curcumin eliminates it, I don´t see how. Most people never check their ferritin, have you ever had your ferritin checked? you might be surprised.
Each time you donate you eliminate about 250 mg Fe, the equivalent of chelation therapy over months and at a much lower cost.