Hello!

As I stated before, I eat a vegan whole food diet (not raw). I always advocate veganism as the moral and healthy choice.

Today I went to donate blood. They took a little sample from my finger, told me I'm blood type A+, and then told me I am not able to give blood..

The problem was that my red blood cells count ('hematocrit' it said on the sheet, which they explained is RBC count, but they don't speak much English so I don't really know) was too low. Apparently, males need to meet a 39% standard (I had 37%) and females 37%...

I am not a blood expert, but according to what I know, this may be a result of iron deficiency. Maybe vitamin A as well? Not sure. If anyone can enlighten me I'll be grateful.

I would also like to know what may be the cause for those deficiencies. I eat loads of fruit and veg, both raw and cooked (if cooked, neither fried nor baked). Try to eat a fair amount of green leafy veg as well..

Will be grateful for any assistance. I want to give blood!

Cheers!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2009 06:26AM by eran.

Hi eran,

Sounds like it could be an iron deficiency as you suspected. Here's a recent post on iron deficiency from ilikerawfood (currently on page 2):

[www.rawfoodsupport.com]

Try beet juice- good source of easy to assimilate iron and known to be a blood builder.

I just had a chem panel and my RBC is high. I juice beets 3 times a week.

Here's an FYI for everyone. There are people who need LESS iron in their diet but don't know it. Hemochromatosis is one of the most common genetic conditions. It is also called "iron overload" because the body absorbs up to four times the normal amount of iron.

Humans don't have a natural way of getting rid of extra iron. In people with hemochromatosis, eventually the extra iron builds up in organs (e.g., liver, heart, pancreas) and causes damage and can be fatal. Symptoms (e.g., chronic fatigue, joint pain, abdominal pain, etc) show up earlier in men and are delayed in women because of menstruation.

Treatment is simple - give blood.

Someone near and dear to me learned about the condition on a TV show and wondered if his father, who died young, had it. So, he had his blood tested and sure enough he did have the gene. Now he gives blood regularly and is perfectly healthy.


My favorite raw vegan

Eran

What this says is that you were marginally below the average/optimal count as determined by those who analyse the (unhealthy) population as a whole.

As you were so fractionally below, it doesn't mean you are anaemic, simply that (in their opinion) you might be IF you gave blood.

Anyone who doesn't eat the same amount of meat as does the average in the population might be a little lower than the population average, but that's not a bad thing!

Over the last 30 years as a non-meat eater my blood's been 'refused' for blood donation a few times. Yet I've never exhibited any of the symptoms of anaemia and have been in general much healthier and more energetic than most people I know (and that's including before raw).

If you are concerned about iron though, please read my article here:

[debbietookrawforlife.blogspot.com]