World Blood Donor Day 2017: Myths about blood donation

New Delhi : Every year, on 14 June, countries around the world celebrate World Blood Donor Day. This year the theme of campaign is - What can you do? With the secondary message: Give blood. Give now. Give often. Check out the myths about the blood donation:

Myth 1: Donating blood is risky as we have limited blood in our bodies.

Completely wrong perception; our bodies do not have limited blood. Blood cells are created in the soft fatty tissue inside bone cavities, called bone marrow. These blood shells are created continuously and die within a time span of 120 days. On donation, body automatically generates new cells and complete the requirement.

Myth 2: Vegetarians have less iron in their blood

Meat based food may be a good source of iron but it is completely a misconception that vegetarians have less iron in their blood shells. A lot of foods in our Indian diet like spinach, raisins, rajma, chickpeas and apricot are rich sources of iron.

Myth 3: Blood donation is a painful process

Wrong. It is one of the simplest processes and does not take more than 30 minutes. A small needle is injected in the body and the blood is taken out from your body.

Myth 4: Women cannot donate blood

There is nothing related to gender when it comes to blood donation; the only thing that matters is haemoglobin level. Haemoglobin is a protein of the red blood cells that gives our blood its red colour and also carries oxygen throughout the body.

Myth 5: Heavy people have more blood than the thin people

It is essential that you must have a minimum weight of 50 kgs to donate blood there is not a single thing beyond that when it comes to relate weight with blood donation. 

There is nothing to worry about donating blood, if you want to help many with a little effort. Happy donating!