The guardian., 1952-02-02
DOCTORS NOTEBOOK
By GLEN z. SHEPHERD, MD.

United Feature Syndicate Inc.)
Your body normally destroys
your blood fast-so fast that you
can give at least five pints of
blood a year without any trouble.
So, you are wasting 1t If you
don't give 1t to the Red Cross or
your local hospital
Your body normally destroys
about 10 million red blood corp
uscles every second and makes
new ones to replace those de-
stroyed. This destroyed blood
could save lives-those of serv-
icemen in Korea or your fellow
citizens in your own town.
Blood is a vitally unique ma
terial for which there is no sub
stitute. This is equally true Of
whole blood and plasma. Plasma
is the liquid part of the blood,
a pale amber fluid containing
literally dozens of different and
very complicated chemicals.
There are plasma substitutes
but none of them works as well
in suffering human being as
does the real thing.
When you give blood to the
Red Cross, the blood from some
people may be saved to use as
whole blood while only the
plaSma from others Is used.
They are equally important.
Sometimes people are disap-
pointed that their whole blood
won't be used and feel that it
is second-best blood because it
will be made into plasma.
That is the wrong slant. You
can have gallons of whole blood
at a base hospital but it's no
good If the victim is dead when
he gets there. Plasma can be
used at the front to save the
life of a shattered Serviceman
in deep shock.
When you give blood, there
are usually no unpleasant symp-
toms even Immediately after
ward. Very occasionally there is
some discomfort. This is temp
orary, lasting only one to three
minutes: 1t is especially likely
to happen if you are tired or
haven't eaten for five to eight
hours before giving your blood.
You are giving less than one
tenth Of the blood in your body
each time it is drawn. Normally,
an average-weight, healthy adult
has five or more quarts of blood
and only one pint is drawn off.
This is quickly restored in the
body. Losing a pint of blood
does not lay healthy person
off from that days work.
The Red Cross and blood banks
cannot take blood from some
people. This refusal more often
is to protect the donor than to
protect the pooled blood.
When you present yourself to
give blood, you should not have
eaten any fats in the four hour
period before the blood is coll
lected. Instead wait three or
four hours after eating consid-
cradle fat before giving blood.
The reason for this is that.
after eating fats, they circulate
temporarily in great quantities
in the blood. Such large
amount of blood fat makes its
processing difficult.
Blood collection Tor service
men in the Korean War and the
national defense program is a
long-range effort. For instance,
plasma can be stockpiled for
three to five years. Donors are
needed month after month.
Thus, if you find your Red
Cross unit busy when you call
to give your blood, remember
that each nurse can draw from
only so many a day and that
your blood still will be desper-
ately needed when they can get
to you.
There are 43 Red Cross donor
centers in the United States.
NO amount of your tax dollars
or other government-imposed
duties can provide substitutes
for your blood. So why not stop
wasting that blood of yours
J which will be destroyed, anyway
give it instead where it can be
most useful.
In 1859, us. Marines consti-