THE ESSENTIAL
- To donate blood, you must be at least 18 years old.
- More than 1,500,000 people gave blood in 2020 in France.
According to a new study, donating blood regularly eliminates toxic substances from our body. What perhaps convince more French people to take the plunge, our reserves being regularly too low.
Intoxicated firefighters
The trial involved 285 firefighters whose bodies had elevated levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), a synthetic chemical. Three groups were formed. Some firefighters were asked, for a year, to donate plasma every six weeks, while others were required to donate blood every 12 weeks. The elements “witnesses” of the cohort continued to live normally, without taking any particular steps, until the end of the experiment.
PFAS levels within the organizations were measured four times: at the time of firefighter recruitment, at the start of the trial, at the end of the experiment, and three months after the last data collections. Conclusion: compared to the control group, blood and plasma donations led to a significant reduction in the chemicals present in the body of the athletes. These benefits were maintained three months after the research was closed.
Plasma donation more efficient
Another lesson: plasma donation was the most effective in cleaning up the body, resulting in a decrease of around 30% in the average concentrations of PFAS in the blood. The fact that plasma donation is more effective than blood donation could be explained by the fact that firefighters in the plasma donation group donated blood every six weeks, while those in the blood donation group did not. did that every 12 weeks.
More “Further research is needed to assess the clinical implications of these findings,” write the scientists in conclusion.