[ExI] People are Genuine Altruists, Sociopaths, or Confused/Moody

[BillK]

On Sun, Sep 14, 2008 at 8:21 PM, spike wrote:
<snip>
> Stanford blood bank keeps calling my wife because she is O negative CMV
> negative.  I suggested she take a few weeks vacation in England, which makes
> one ineligible to donate.  We are told it is because they devour nearly raw
> cows there.  {8^D  John and Bill, do you guys really eat bovine sushi, or is
> it urban legend?
>

You got to be three months in the UK to make you ineligible for US
blood donations.
That's a long holiday.  :)

It is because there have been cases of Mad Cow disease in the UK and
there is no test for it. We could all be going mad and not know about
it.
(I thought rare steaks were a US tradition, anyway?)
 But it's nothing to do with steaks, as you probably well know. ;)
It is 'meat' products, like burgers, sausages, etc. where sloppy
practice at the processing plants threw in all the other bits of the
cow, specifically, bits of brain stem which might carry the disease.
They are not supposed to do that nowadays. (!)

I've had a look at the iron research reports and I think the answer is
'In some cases it might be a benefit, in others no benefit, or even
lead to iron deficiency'.  The research which found the heart attack
protection benefit cautioned that there could be a big self-selection
factor at work. You have to be pretty healthy to give blood. The list
of exclusion factors is quite lengthy. See:
<http://www.bloodbook.com/donr-requir.html>  These health problems
might have applied to their control group who didn't donate.

People normally have a range of iron levels in their blood and if the
level tests too low, they won't let you donate blood. The blood
donation guidelines tell donors to eat plenty of iron-rich foods
following a donation to rebuild the iron levels in their blood
quickly. So any benefit (or harm) is likely to be temporary.


BillK