Donating Blood
Posted by lisaanddini on May 23, 2007 · Member since May 2007 · 2179 posts
I just donated blood & even though I feel fine now, I am dreading the sluggishness I know I will feel tomorrow. Plus I'm planning on a long group run this Saturday and hope that I feel up to it. Does anyone have any tips for helping my body regenerate my red blood cells a little quicker? I'm having tofu & spinach stuffed manicotti for lunch, I thought the iron & protein would help.
http://www.stanforddaily.com/article/2006/5/25/bannedFromTheBloodBank
I couldn't find a whole lot on the incidence rate among homosexual men or the epidemiology of HIV beyond comparing just countries to countries, but one article suggested (without citing sources; it was the abstract of research I would have to pay to see :( ) that there is a higher risk of young gay men now who are (apparently) more likely to engage in "risky behavior" because they feel safer than the gay men who experienced friends/etc with HIV in the 80s. Maybe what I heard was outdated?
Well, what makes it about being gay is that, apparently, the lifetime ban was put in place when they thought of HIV as a gay disease, and that as things still stand, it is still a lifetime ban. All other 'risky behavior's only count if they occurred in the past year (tattoo, piercing, sex with prostitute), but a man who has had anal sex with another man once in his lifetime cannot donate. It's also about being gay because the question is not "Have you engaged in anal sex in the past year?" but "are you a man who has ever had sexual contact with another man?". I.e., anal sex between a man and woman (though just as risky for transmission as two men) is not considered risky behavior, esp. not for a lifetime.
The only way someone is going to be totally free from ever getting AIDS is to be sexually active with only one partner - both being virgins from the beginng - for the rest of their lives.
The only way someone in this situation would get AIDS would be through a tainted blood supply. And like it or not, there are still a lot of people in the world who fit this discription. So I guess that is the reason for the ruling.
Whose blood would you rather get? Someone who sleeps around with many or someone who has had only one sexual partner? It does make a difference.
I thought I heard orange juice to was good.
thats all good if you know that the person with one sexual partner hasn't been injecting drugs with shared needles for the past 40 years, if you're sure they didn't take human growth hormones in their early teens, get bitten by a mosquito while on vacation, get cut up and smooshed into an equally bloody player in a rugby scrum, need medical treatment in a third world country or unsanitary clinic, get bled on while comforting someone dying in a car wreck while working as a fire-rescue officer, have a really shady, sloopy, or cheap dentist who re-used his gloves on the sly, get pricked by a discarded needle in a playground as a small child, get a transfusion at some point in the distant past, get headbutted by drunken bloody foreheaded football fan, yada yad yada... while they've been in their monogamous relationship.
i wouldn't give a monkeys how many peoples genitals my donor had come into contact with, if they'd passed the screening exams with flying colours. everything makes a difference.
I will never support an organization who discriminates against people because of his/her (his in this case) sexual orientation. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=3205445
They also test on animals...http://www.downbound.com/Animal_Testing_s/290.htm (this is cross-referenced from other sites, as well.)
As far as I'm concerned, the American Red Cross can go to h*ll. If anyone knows of another organization that does similar work without the bulls**t, please post here.
American Red Cross reminds me of March of Dimes! >:(
I know this isn't the topic this thread was meant for, but since everyone else has gone off on a little tangent, I thought it'd be okay if I did, too... ;) What is wrong with the March of Dimes?? I've never heard anything (good or bad, really), besides what it is... Now I'm curious.
i think March of dimes test on animlas...peta has something about it...
I don't understand why they ask all those questions anyway, though the "have you accepted money in return for sex?" always gives me a giggle. If they're testing all of them anyway, why do they have to ask? Whether I lie or tell the absolute truth, they're still going to test it....
i think March of dimes test on animlas...peta has something about it...
http://www.marchofcrimes.com/
They are mother f***ers. I hate those people. I wish I believed in reincarnation just so they could come back and be tested on. >:(
Always, ALWAYS check out your charity in two places before making a donation...
1. http://www.humaneseal.org/ (also available on PETA and PCRM) to see if they test on animals.
2. http://bbb.org/ to make sure they are legit.
:o your frightening me a littel bit...I have never seen you so upset! But I mean, I totally agree that animal testing is absolutely disgusting and I do not support the march of dimes because of it.
It's terrible that it's essentially discriminating against gay men.
However, according to the CDC, men who have sex with men (MSM) "accounted for 71% of all HIV infections among male adults and adolescents in 2005 (based on data from 33 states with long-term, confidential name-based HIV reporting), even though only about 5% to 7% of male adults and adolescents in the United States identify themselves as MSM."
It's a higher-risk for AIDS transmission, and it's an avenue that can be eliminated easily. If anyone were to get AIDS from a blood transfusion, we'd all be up in arms about the incompetence of the Red Cross.
It'd be great if we could just perform tests on all the donated blood to figure this out, but the blood tests are NOT 100% accurate. There is the chance of a false negative. The Red Cross can only reduce the probability that it's getting infected blood... and then perform as many tests as it can.
This is a situation of moral ambiguity... I abhor the fact that they're discriminating against homosexuals, but I applaud the fact that they're doing everything possible to minimize a preventable source of AIDS transmission.
i think March of dimes test on animlas...peta has something about it...
http://www.marchofcrimes.com/
They are mother f***ers. I hate those people. I wish I believed in reincarnation just so they could come back and be tested on. >:(
Always, ALWAYS check out your charity in two places before making a donation...
1. http://www.humaneseal.org/ (also available on PETA and PCRM) to see if they test on animals.
2. http://bbb.org/ to make sure they are legit.
:o your frightening me a littel bit...I have never seen you so upset! But I mean, I totally agree that animal testing is absolutely disgusting and I do not support the march of dimes because of it.
Oh, I am a closet angry vegan. Nothing to fear. Unless you work for MOD. :D
;Dwheh! Im safe! ;)
It'd be great if we could just perform tests on all the donated blood to figure this out, but the blood tests are NOT 100% accurate.
I'm totally NOT comforted by this piece of information
Since this topic conveniently resurfaced, here is a piece of related information I just learned.
There is a doctor who has a theory that blood donation is linked to Glaucoma! I heard this through someone who knows someone who knows the doctor, so I tried to research it on my own and couldn't find it. But I'm nervous now! I think it is mostly for people who have donated blood consistently throughout their lives, but how much do we really know about the long term effects? Little scary.
I don't know why you want to FEEL IT. I personally prefer to EAT my frosting!
LOL Feeling overworked and tired for a Monday, can you tell?
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i can't donate because i have psoriasis. people get so up in arms about this gay discrimination. as one poster put it, she would never do business with any company that discriminated on the grounds of sexual orientation. why is sexual orientation-based discrimination any worse than any other kind? i am discriminated against because i have a disease. it isn't HIV, it isn't something i chose to do like a tattoo or a piercing or traveling out of the country, but it is something i was born with and it will never go away. if they want to be extra careful and possibly step on some toes, i don't have a problem with it. the more you can do to make the donated blood supply cleaner, the safer it will be when the time comes that i might need it. i understand that, so it doesn't hurt my feelings.
fiona
i think you'd be disqualified because psoriasis is thought to be an auto-immune disease, and their is the thought that it could be passed to another person.
i think alot of these fears about passing on HIV or Hep. could be remedied if the organizations could get their safety, testing, and organizing shit together!
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