High-protein diets could allow more people to donate blood

By ELIZABETH PIERSON, elizabethp~valleystar.com, 956-430-6252

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High-protein diets like Atkins that Americans hope will trim them down might also help bulk up the nation’s blood supply.

Donors who want to give blood are frequently asked not to for a list of reasons that include travel to malaria-risk parts of the world, a tattoo fresher than 12 months and a weakened immune system.

But the most common reason for these so-called deferrals is low hemoglobin levels in the blood, which usually indicate a person doesn’t have enough iron in his or her blood, said Dr. Paul Allison, a Houston pathologist and chairman of the Blood and Tissue Usage Committee with the Texas Medical Association.

The Atkins Diet and other low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets encourage eating meat products, which are rich in iron. Whole grain cereals and high-bran foods, discouraged by the diet, often block absorption of iron, according to a handout from the United Blood Services.

Allison and other blood experts said this week that, although they haven’t studied the issue closely, a possible consequence of the high-protein diets could be fewer hemoglobin-related deferrals.

"Whether or not this iron that goes along with these high-protein diets is able to compensate for those individuals who are chronically low on iron, it’s possible," Allison said during a telephone interview. "It’s certainly possible."

At American Red Cross Blood Services in Harlingen, 12 percent of the people who come to donate blood are asked to return later because they don’t have a high enough concentration of iron in their blood, said Jeff Noto, territory manager.

"The more protein and iron food that they’re eating, that should get their iron up," Noto said.

About 90 percent of the people deferred for low hemoglobin are women, many of whom are thought to have low iron levels because they lose blood regularly during menstruation, Allison said.

Potential blood donors who have low iron levels should consult their doctors to determine the cause of low iron and determine whether changing their diets would help, he said.

This has been true for me.
I became anemic after being put on Coumadin(a blood thinner)
and was always chronically low on my h&h until i began this way of eating. Now my counts only lower when i am bleeding out and they don't take as long to rise back to at least low normal levels. Before starting this way of eating i had to receive blood approximately two times a year. Since beginning it i haven't had to at all.
Unfortunately, the Coumadin also keeps me from being a blood donor candidate.