Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Regular blood donations can reduce “forever chemicals” in the bloodstream: study

theswaddle.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 213 posts

Re: Regular blood donations can reduce “forever chemicals” in the bloodstream: study

#121

Post by qgin »

s0rce wrote: post #46
hereme888 wrote: post #34

Sheesh, I can't believe the percent of negative comments! Someone finally figured a way to reduce PFAS. It's a hugely positive finding, especially in light of people being able to keep their red blood cells. Hopefully it can be ruled as a safe long-term solution for now. Looking forward to reading updates on this research. And btw, donating plasma doesn't mean other people will get your PFAS; many things can be done…

Even if someone else would get your PFAS its most likely they have them as well and its certainly better than dying of blood loss or not treating other serious issues that rely on various blood products.

Absolutely, the point of a blood transfusion is that a body needs blood replenished faster than it can produce it. A blood transfusion now, PFAS or no, gives someone a chance to survive (and who knows, maybe donate blood themselves at some point)

Re: Regular blood donations can reduce “forever chemicals” in the bloodstream: study

#122

Post by dvdgsng »

jfengel wrote: post #60
EvanAnderson wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was some discussion[0] on HN a few weeks ago organizations (like the Red Cross[1]) not accepting donations from patients who require therapeutic phlebotomy (hemochromatosis patients, for example) because their donation provides the donor a benefit (and therefore isn't strictly altruistic). That sent me down an interesting rabbit hole of reading (link in discussion). [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3080…

I didn't realize that. I was briefly thought to have hemochromatosis, and had been "self-treating" via the Red Cross for years. It turns out I didn't have hemochromatosis. It was merely a bit high, but knowing that I donated so often (both whole blood and platelets, which you can do more often), there was concern that the "self-treatment" was covering up a real problem. I had not heard at the time that they wouldn't…

I have hemochromatosis and here in Germany it's impossible for me to donate blood. It's not actually forbidden, afaik, but no company want's to give 'contaminated' blood to patients, even though it would be perfectly fine.

Re: Regular blood donations can reduce “forever chemicals” in the bloodstream: study

#123

Post by kurupt213 »

hereme888 wrote: post #34

Sheesh, I can't believe the percent of negative comments! Someone finally figured a way to reduce PFAS. It's a hugely positive finding, especially in light of people being able to keep their red blood cells. Hopefully it can be ruled as a safe long-term solution for now. Looking forward to reading updates on this research. And btw, donating plasma doesn't mean other people will get your PFAS; many things can be done…

Regular plasma donation is probably much worse for your long term health than ppb levels of pfas.

Re: Regular blood donations can reduce “forever chemicals” in the bloodstream: study

#124

Post by superjan »

The article mentions the reduction, not beginlevels of the substances. It turns out that the reduction during the test period is about 30% (for at least one of the substance categories). A meaningful reduction for sure, but it should be interesting to test them after a few years of blood donation. On page 6/7 of the JAMA pdf you find the relevant graph.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/articlepdf/...

Re: Regular blood donations can reduce “forever chemicals” in the bloodstream: study

#125

Post by daenz »

areyousure wrote: post #116
daenz wrote: post #104

I used to donate blood regularly. I would donate more regularly if I got a full blood panel with each donation. I've been quoted $600-2500. Surely you can comp that for me if I give you a pint.

In case anyone is curious, it appears a pint of blood in the US sells for $150--$300.

That seems to answer it on face value, unless the prices quoted for blood panels are very inflated due to insurance.

EDIT>> Maybe a punch card? Donate N pints, get a free blood panel.

Re: Regular blood donations can reduce “forever chemicals” in the bloodstream: study

#126

Post by inspector-g »

kurupt213 wrote: post #123
hereme888 wrote: post #34

Sheesh, I can't believe the percent of negative comments! Someone finally figured a way to reduce PFAS. It's a hugely positive finding, especially in light of people being able to keep their red blood cells. Hopefully it can be ruled as a safe long-term solution for now. Looking forward to reading updates on this research. And btw, donating plasma doesn't mean other people will get your PFAS; many things can be done…

Regular plasma donation is probably much worse for your long term health than ppb levels of pfas.

Citation?

Re: Regular blood donations can reduce “forever chemicals” in the bloodstream: study

#129

Post by JamisonM »

PeterisP wrote: post #90
giantg2 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I generally agree the idea that it's not harmful enough to stop a transfer, I disagree with the basis of the argument. We could also say that given a choice between death and HIV, the blood recipient would still want the blood.

With respect to HIV, there is an alternative to get non-contaminated blood. With respect to PFAS, which is a general societal/environmental issue it's likely that all donated blood has roughly the same PFAS levels, so recipient either gets blood with PFAS or no blood at all; and the "new" blood might have slightly more or less PFAS than the recipients current blood, but the recipient already has a comparable level of…

I would argue additionally that once the person in need of blood has recovered they can simply donate blood and in so doing enjoy the benefits of reduced PFAS levels and hopefully save someone else's life with that blood!

Re: Regular blood donations can reduce “forever chemicals” in the bloodstream: study

#130

Post by stjohnswarts »

kurupt213 wrote: post #123
hereme888 wrote: post #34

Sheesh, I can't believe the percent of negative comments! Someone finally figured a way to reduce PFAS. It's a hugely positive finding, especially in light of people being able to keep their red blood cells. Hopefully it can be ruled as a safe long-term solution for now. Looking forward to reading updates on this research. And btw, donating plasma doesn't mean other people will get your PFAS; many things can be done…

Regular plasma donation is probably much worse for your long term health than ppb levels of pfas.

Regular is an extremely vague term here, what are you talking about? a few times a year or weekly? Like the other person said, citations needed.
Post reply on HN