Is donating blood healthy or unhealthy?

Short term, yes there are effects on the donor. Not always (I've never felt these effects) but some of the short term effects are:

Dizziness

Feeling Faint

Feeling hungry

Feeling lethargic

Mind you, these rarely last more than 12-24 hours and are usually gone after a good night's sleep and a few meals.

What happens is that you have to replace the missing fluid (a few hours) and have to get used to the missing blood cells and the Oxygen they carry.

However there are long-term benefits especially if you donate every 8 weeks like I do. The short term effects lessen and eventually stop occurring when you donate. Your body gets used to doing more with less (much the same way as Olympic runners often train at higher elevations to get used to the lower O2 levels).

Not to mention the positive feelings you get knowing that you may have just saved a life by dropping off a little excess.

If you're worried about the short term effects, eat a good breakfast before donating. Drink plenty of water. And take some iron supplements or a high-iron cereal to help boost the red cell count before donating.

Donate in the morning, after breakfast but just before lunch. Or in the afternoon after breakfast and lunch, just before dinner. Eating afterward helps the body recover.

After donating take them up on their offer of juice and cookies and wait sitting down for 15 minutes before heading out to eat a full meal and finish out your day.

Is Donating Blood Healthy

Is Giving Blood Healthy

Assuming you're healthy and your body is able to replace that blood naturally, it's healthy. You are donating old, used blood and your body is replacing it with fresh new blood!

Only a couple of hundred years ago they used to treat diseases by bleeding people! Actually I'm not sure what the reasoning behind that was. It was a long time ago when people didn't know much. But I can't imagine the treatment would have been so popular if it really hurt people that much. 8^P

Donating blood can never be harmful until and unless the donor is suffering from any blood disease or any other diseases.. Donating blood is always good and keeps you healthy.. It will not only increases teh circulation of blood and gives you inner glow.. it will also gives you satisfaction of helping others.. :) SO go and donate whenevr you can, ... Give 3 months gap in between.. :D

its completly healthy they take all the precaussions like clean equipment only taking so much and only letting you donate so often. do you really think they would let people do it so often if it was bad for you? I do it whenever i can usually every 58 days or so when they let me. i LOVE donating! and i have never had a problem with it.

i encourage everybody to donate if they can. Just think you could help save a life

Unhealthy if donated too often, but a few times is harmless.

honestly, I am so fuzzy about whether blood donation is good or not... who can offer me a authoritative answer?