Donating Blood Lowers Killer T-Cells?

Josh

Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2018
Messages
344
Hey Guys,

Hey guys, i've been looking into any potential negatives of donating blood to reduce iron and have been told by someone that it's not good for the immune system and that it can cause killer T cell levels to drop and possibly never return back to normal levels.. Which the blood donating centres obviously do not want it get out there as because how much we need blood..

Does anyone have any thoughts on this??

(And just to give you an idea of where i'm at in terms of iron overload.. Always have eaten chicken and occasional red meat, and then 2017 september started eating a lot more red meat and then 2018 may i had a blood test and had Iron saturation of like 30%, Ferritin was high like 230 and other markers were all very very normal..

Then continued eating red meat everyday until my iron blood test this year may 2019 and everything was higher like 52% iron saturation, donated blood a week later, massively reduced red meat and then a few months later and then re did iron test and saturation was like 35% and other markers were reduced also.. then did another donation in july..

I'm just thinking of the risk of this T cell thing now, and balancing the negatives and positives..

I have the h63D gene only, Now to you guys does this just sound like a dietary thing and not much genetic risk? back in the gym now i would normally eat 150g red meat like mon, wed, fri and maybe sunday. With cheese and will try to get coffee in as well . If i didnt continue to donate blood will that be okay?
 

dfspcc20

Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2015
Messages
633
have been told by someone that it's not good for the immune system and that it can cause killer T cell levels to drop and possibly never return back to normal levels

It'd be helpful to know who said this and what evidence they provided to back it up.
 

redsun

Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2018
Messages
3,013
Hey Guys,

Hey guys, i've been looking into any potential negatives of donating blood to reduce iron and have been told by someone that it's not good for the immune system and that it can cause killer T cell levels to drop and possibly never return back to normal levels.. Which the blood donating centres obviously do not want it get out there as because how much we need blood..

Does anyone have any thoughts on this??

(And just to give you an idea of where i'm at in terms of iron overload.. Always have eaten chicken and occasional red meat, and then 2017 september started eating a lot more red meat and then 2018 may i had a blood test and had Iron saturation of like 30%, Ferritin was high like 230 and other markers were all very very normal..

Then continued eating red meat everyday until my iron blood test this year may 2019 and everything was higher like 52% iron saturation, donated blood a week later, massively reduced red meat and then a few months later and then re did iron test and saturation was like 35% and other markers were reduced also.. then did another donation in july..

I'm just thinking of the risk of this T cell thing now, and balancing the negatives and positives..

I have the h63D gene only, Now to you guys does this just sound like a dietary thing and not much genetic risk? back in the gym now i would normally eat 150g red meat like mon, wed, fri and maybe sunday. With cheese and will try to get coffee in as well . If i didnt continue to donate blood will that be okay?

If your B vitamin content in the diet and intake of over minerals are poor, then that iron is just going stick around and not be used. As for the T cells, this is probably bull. Perhaps because of depletion of other nutrients that are in the blood that you obviously lose when donating, you could be lowering your ability to make t cells or maintain your immune system. You need certain cofactors to make white blood cells just like you need cofactors to make red blood cells. Deficiencies can mean your body won't be as good as making WBCs.

I would lower intake of iron temporarily(which you are already doing) and increase nutrient intake from foods. It would be best to tap into cronometer your diet and see how your vitamin and mineral intakes look. If you are lacking in certain things this will reduce your ability to use iron. Regardless of how you lower the ferritin, it is important to regularly monitor it so it doesn't go too low.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom