Modern Day Bloodletting

Recently, I found out that taking too much iron can be very very bad for you. That's because your body stores nearly all the iron you need. It is not excreted like most excess vitamins and minerals. Some is lost daily through shedding of hair and skin. But mainly, the only way to lose iron is to lose blood.

My entire adult life I've felt as though I wasn't getting enough iron. I bruise easily. I'm constantly fatigued. Telling signs of anemia, right? Well, without consulting a doctor, I decided to take iron supplements. Then I started getting severe headaches. That's when I learned something I hadn't known before. People who are anemic are not necessarily iron deficient, since, as previously mentioned, the body is extremely efficient at storing iron. It's just that their hemoglobin is not accessing the iron for one reason or another.

Now, I'm most likely not anemic, just a hypochondriac. But I was worried about the excess iron I had foolishly been taking. The only way to get rid of it is to bleed and I was not likely to be involved in a bloody knife fight any time soon. Then I remembered a less barbaric way to let blood. Donating!

In addition to helping the community, donating blood also provides therapeutic service to those with excess iron, which led me to think of it as modern day bloodletting. I became excited about the idea of getting out all the "bad blood" I had accumulated. When I thought about it, I couldn't remember the last time I had bled a lot. It was probably in the 4th grade when I slid on icy macadam at recess and tore up my entire leg. I had been carrying the same blood around inside of me and it was time to let some of it out.

So if you have any interest in the archaic practice of bloodletting or you just want to do something good, please donate some blood. The amount of donors is currently not meeting the demand for the supply. It's relatively quick and painless and it's interesting in a sciencey sort of way to see blood leaving your body and know that you'll be producing new fresh blood soon. Okay maybe that would gross some people out. But you don't have to look if you don't want to and you get free cookies at the end.

Visit www.givelife.org for more information.