Could donating blood help you to live longer?

Donating blood has always been inherently altruistic. While some people might see it as an opportunity to get a quick health screening – your vital signs such as blood pressure and heart rate are checked before donating and you also get notified if any abnormalities are found in the blood you donated – most people donate blood because they know it can save the lives of other people who need a transfusion.

Recent research from the Francis Crick Institute in London, however, has shown that donating blood frequently might have some health advantages for the donor too!

Before we dive into this, we need to know a little bit more about a naturally occurring process in our bodies that is called ‘clonal hematopoiesis’. This means that as we get older, our blood-forming stem cells naturally accumulate mutations, and some of these mutations increase the risk of certain blood diseases such as anemia, erythrocytosis and leukemia.

The research that was carried out by the Francis Crick Institute compared two groups of healthy male donors in their 60s:

• Group 1 (the ‘frequent donors’) had donated blood more than 100 times.

• Group 2 (the ‘sporadic donors’) had donated blood less than 10 times.

While both groups had a similar amount of genetic mutations, the nature of the mutations was different. Nearly 50% of the frequent donors carried a particular class of mutation that is not typically linked to cancer. For the group of infrequent donors, this was only 30%.

Donating whole blood removes around 10% of the total circulating hemoglobin in the body, which causes the body to increase the production of erythropoietin (EPO) to stimulate bone marrow erythropoiesis. These increased concentrations of EPO remain elevated for up to 120 days following a blood donation. Therefore, it is thought that donating blood regularly alters the genetic landscape of stem cells in a positive way because it encourages the body to produce fresh blood cells.

There is also some preliminary research that points to the following additional benefits of regular blood donation:

• It might reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by improving insulin sensitivity.

• It might lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases by reducing blood viscosity. While thick blood increases the risk of cardiovascular problems, such as blood clots, high blood pressure and strokes, thinner blood (i.e. with reduced viscosity) makes it easier for the hart to pump blood through the body.

• It might regulate high iron levels in the body, which have been associated with oxidative stress and inflammation.

Correlation or causation?

We must of course ask ourselves if blood donation causes the health benefits or if people who donate frequently are already healthier than the average population, since not everyone is eligible to donate blood. Potential donors have to meet strict criteria and people with certain infections, chronic illnesses or (a history of) cancer typically do not qualify.

It would be great if there were indeed some guaranteed health benefits to donating blood frequently, as it would undoubtedly encourage more people to donate. But for now, blood donors will have to make do with the fact that their donation could save someone’s life. And if you ask us, that is a splendid reason to donate!