Plasma donation is a worthy cause and a fulfilling experience for anyone who wishes to donate. It offers you the opportunity to help others in need of life-saving treatments while posing no risk to you. You may feel tired for a few hours after your appointment, but your body effectively replenishes what you donated within 24 to 48 hours.
Nevertheless, donating plasma can be mutually beneficial for you as well as the patients you end up helping. However, unlike whole blood donations, where the benefits are well-documented, not many people know about the benefits of donating plasma.
In this blog, we share seven direct and indirect benefits that donating plasma can offer.
You Can Help Save Lives
The most prominent benefit is the opportunity to save countless lives around the world. Your plasma donation goes a long way toward helping people with life-threatening conditions and not only help them survive emergency situations but also elevate their quality of life.
Plasma is used in a number of ways in medicine. For instance, plasma transfusions are a widely-used treatment among critically-ill patients suffering from liver failure, serious burns, and severe infections. Patients who receive plasma protein therapies like clotting factors and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) will also need to rely on your donation, considering that plasma cannot be produced synthetically.
Plasma is also an essential component in many life-saving medicines today. Doctors prescribe plasma-derived medication in order to treat approximately 100 different diseases through replacement therapy, the correction of a protein imbalance, or continuous supplementation.
Regardless of how regularly you donate, a small donation of plasma can make a massive impact in the lives of the patients that receive medication derived from your plasma. Best of all, it will only take about an hour of your time to make a difference in people’s lives.
Substantial Compensation
An added benefit to donating plasma is the opportunity to help others while earning substantial compensation in return. At ABO Plasma, we value our donors’ commitment to helping others and saving someone else’s life by sharing their plasma and time with us. In return, we would like to compensate you for your contribution by offering compensation for each donation that you make.
Each appointment only takes about an hour to complete from beginning to end. By making multiple appointments per week, you can make a donation up to 104 times per year, allowing you to earn a significant amount per year while making a difference in people’s lives.
Access to Important Medical Information
At the start of your appointment, you will be asked to go through a screening process to confirm your donation eligibility. You will be asked to undergo several tests, such as checking your vital signs, blood pressure, and blood count. Through these tests, you can gain access to critical information that can help determine your overall state of health.
Here are some aspects of your health that are revealed during the screening process:
- Blood Pressure. The normal blood pressure reading for human adults is below 120/80 mmHg. If your blood pressure reaches 90/50 mmHg, you have low blood pressure, which can cause dizziness, weakness, and fainting. A blood pressure reading way above 120/80 mmHg is considered high blood pressure, which causes headaches and puts you at risk of a heart attack or a stroke.
- Pulse/Heart Rate. Your heart rate measures the number of times your heart beats per minute. A heart rate above 100 bpm is considered high and could indicate that you feel nervous, but it may also be a sign of poor oxygen supply, a weak heart, or an illness.
- Blood Test. Blood tests reveal a lot about your overall condition. A low hematocrit count could mean that you’re anemic, which means your iron levels are low. Meanwhile, a high hematocrit count may indicate that you’re severely dehydrated but could also mean something else entirely. Regardless of whether it’s high or low, a hematocrit count outside the normal range should prompt a visit to your primary physician for an accurate diagnosis.
Donating Has Mood-Elevating Effects
Knowing that the plasma you donate goes a long way towards helping those battling illnesses can also help elevate your mood. One article by Stephen G. Post suggests that altruistic behaviors and emotions are associated with health, longevity, and overall well-being. In addition, when you’re donating plasma, your body releases endorphins, which can improve your mood and lower your stress. This explains why some people who donate feel less anxious after their session has been completed.
Promotes a Healthy Lifestyle
Giving regular plasma donations can lead you to form healthier habits and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Donors are strongly encouraged to eat healthily and maintain healthy habits to ensure they’re at peak health when donating.
That means eating foods rich in iron, protein, and vitamin C to promote normal hematocrit levels and drinking a lot of water to keep your body hydrated. Doing so makes the donation process much easier as it promotes better blood flow and faster replenishment of lost fluids.
If you plan to make regular donations, then you’ll most likely be extra motivated to get more sleep at night, cut back on fatty foods, limit your alcohol and caffeine intake, and stay away from nicotine to stay healthy. Furthermore, by gaining access to more information about your health, you can make informed choices to tweak or maintain your habits.
Lower Cholesterol Levels
High levels of bad cholesterol in the blood increase your risk of heart disease and heart attacks. So it’s important to lower your overall cholesterol level by reducing the intake of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and increasing the intake of high-density lipoprotein (HDL).
The changes you make to your eating habits and lifestyle can directly affect the cholesterol levels in your body. Eating nutrient-rich foods, staying away from fatty food, and getting more sleep and exercise can directly result in lower levels of bad cholesterol and higher good cholesterol levels.
But aside from the lifestyle changes, donating plasma has direct benefits on your cholesterol levels. Studies have shown that the collection process for plasma can clean the blood, which helps regulate cholesterol in the blood and decrease your risk of heart disease.
Improved Vital Signs
In addition to reducing cholesterol levels, all of your vital signs are positively impacted by the changes you make to retain your eligibility to donate plasma. Eating more foods rich in iron and vitamin C stimulates your production of hemoglobin, which helps you maintain normal hematocrit levels in the blood.
And with improved vein health and better blood flow, your heart rate reduces considerably, and your blood pressure is maintained at normal levels, effectively reducing the load on your heart and decreasing your risk of a heart attack.
Be A Lifesaver and Donate Plasma Today!
The benefits of donating plasma can also extend beyond the physical effects. For many of our donors, the benefits of donating are personally fulfilling to them, and the joy they feel when donating is priceless. You can become a donor, too, by signing up today!