Diffrent Question - Giving blood and exercise

[Guest craftsman]

Here is a question to you all , all little off topic but a good opinion as always appreciated.

 

I am a regular exerciser , as well I donate blood every 56 days. I can notice a decrease in my cardio ability right after but it improves after some time. I am donating blood platelets next time , do any of you think that it would have simialr results ? Godd question for all our moderators.

 

thanks all

 

[Guest medicator007]

The decrease excecise performance following donation makes perfect sense being the opposite effect of those cross country skiers who got caught with the transfusion equipment. Less RBC, less 02 carrying capacity...etc

 

You state that you will be donating blood platelets next time and are wondering if this will have the same effect. While theoretically blood platelets should not have any effect on excerise performance as their main goal is in clotting, i am not aware of any method in which to donate solely platelets and no any other blood components. To my understanding, they simply take whole blood and separate it into packed cells, plasma and platelets by centrifugation or other process.

 

Maybe i am mistaken or i misunderstood your statement, but as i understand you should see the same result.Anyone able to confirm or clarify?

[Guest governorgeneral]

from the hema-quebec site - i don't know what might apply elsewhere:

 

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote>Quote:<hr>

Platelet donation by apheresis

 

This method of collecting platelets takes two hours and is done by an automated process called plateletpheresis (apheresis: Greek root aphairésis meaning removal). This type of specialized donation is carried out at HÉMA-QUÉBEC's facilities in Montreal and Sainte-Foy.

 

The donor blood flows through the tubing into the apheresis instrument. Using a centrifuge, the apheresis instrument retains only the platelets, which are collected in a sterile bag. <!--EZCODE BOLD START--> The rest of the blood flows back through the tubing to the donor.<!--EZCODE BOLD END--> This is a sterile procedure; the disposable materials are used only once and then thrown away.

 

N.B. In a donor, platelets are replaced almost immediately. A regular donor can give platelets up to 24 times a year.

<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END-->

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Interesting question. . . I had the same problem myself. I was on my high school's cross-country running team in OAC, and foolishly decided to donate blood three days before the race. I didn't run so well that day. . . hey, I didn't even complete the race.

 

To answer your question, that topic has never been specifically covered in medical school, but my guess is that donating platelets would be better for exercise performance. I offer this opinion not as medical advice, but as someone who has covered a bit of physiology/etc. My best guess is that the drop in exercise performance is mostly due to decrease in hemoglobin, and I think when you donate platelets they don't remove any Red Blood Cells or Hemoglobin. . . so I don't think you would suffer a decrease in performance with platelet donation.

 

On another note, why would you be addressing this sort of question to the moderators?

[Guest medicator007]

Good to know, this seems to be a fairly new procedure!

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Actually, they've been collecting platelets for years. I know a bit about this myself, having been a regular blood donor in late High school and early university. I believe they collect platelets specifically for Hemophiliac patients (collection of blood clotting factors) and collect only the platelets because the fact they're not removing RBCs means you can take platelets much more often. . .

[Guest medicator007]

Interesting to know UWOMED2005, I had always known that platelets were used for the treatment of hemopheliacs amiongst other bleeding disorders, but i was always under the impression that they simply fractionated whole blood into its constituent parts...

 

and here i thought I would only learn about medical school on this board!

 

thanks

[Guest Ian Wong]

I was under the impression that at most places, they still take out the blood itself, and fractionate it down by centrifugation into different components: eg. packed red cells, platelets, fresh frozen plasma, etc. As far as exercise tolerance goes, that would certainly be affected if your red cells weren't replaced. Acutely, you'd also have a slight volume deficit, but your body can compensate for this in a much shorter time span (kidneys excrete less fluid, vessels constrict, and the heart beats fasters and stronger) instead of the slower process of making more red cells from scratch.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest medicator007]

Ian i am under the same impression with respect to platelet donation, but it would appear that hema-quebec has come up with a manner to only take platelets which seems to be fairly new as it is only located at two specific sites. Still pretty dang cool if u ask me.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Hmm. . . I'm not sure - I'm relying on my experiences as a blood donor rather than anything I've learned in med school but I do remember them offering back in '96 a form of blood donation where you could donate blood more often than normally. I kind of ASSumed it was platelet donation. Not sure though - I'll have to dblcheck that one.

[Guest Ian Wong]

Here you go. You can do either.

 

www.bloodservices.ca/cent...enDocument

 

I still believe the most common method is to simply take the whole blood and reduce it down. It isn't common knowledge, but it's rare to tranfuse whole blood from one person directly into another. Rather, since a blood product transfusion usually has a singular goal (ie. add red blood cells, or add clotting factors, or platelets), you would be wasting the remaining blood components as well as fluid overloading the patient. Rather, if you simply give packed red cells (centrifuged to have red cells, and very little plasma and no platelets or white cells) to an anemic patient. Similarly, if you have a patient with a coagulation problem, you may only need to transfuse the plasma (which contains the clotting factors) and the platelets, and can save the red cells for someone who really needs it.

 

As a result, when you donate whole blood, lots of different patients could receive individual portions of your blood.

 

Plateletpheresis should allow you to get back into gear much sooner than donating whole blood, as you get most of that fluid volume back, as well as the red cells.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest strider2004]

I'm going to use some knowledge I gained in undergrad, not medicine. If you're just taking platelets out, then there should be no change in your oxygen carrying capacity. However, platelets do affect the viscosity of your blood. Taking them out would render your blood less viscous(more plasma) and should decrease the fluid resistance in your vessels. This in turn eases the workload on your heart so your heart can pump more blood with less energy. Your hematocrit is a balance between oxygen carrying capacity and fluid viscosity. It's actually more beneficial to have a lower hematocrit(in terms of heart performance, should be around 0-32) but in high altitudes your hematocrit can rise to 60%. I miss biophysics.