If You Are Hypertensive, Donate Blood Every Three Months
A study from the Charité university hospital in Berlin proves that donating blood can reduce the dose or make medication unnecessary.
In Spain, four out of 10 people over the age of 18 have high blood pressure. Half are diagnosed and the vast majority take drugs to control it. It is important to control hypertension because it multiplies the risk of suffering a stroke or heart attack.
All medications that are prescribed for hypertension have side effects. For this reason, strategies that can be effective without resorting to drugs are interesting. Therapeutic diet, physical exercise and some medicinal plants are useful, but research from the prestigious Charité university hospital in Berlinhas discovered another effective therapy: donate blood every three months.
Donating blood four times a year helps control blood pressure
German doctors were struck by the fact that their hypertensive patients were lowered to normal blood pressure every time they went to donate blood for humanitarian reasons. To get to the bottom of the matter they recruited 150 hypertensive people who donated blood every three months for a year.
They took their blood pressure before and after each blood draw (about 500 ml, which is usual in the donation procedure). The researchers found that the values were significantly reduced: a mean of 16 mmHg for the systolic value and 7 mmHg for the diastolic.
Some patients were able to reduce the dose of medicine they were taking or even stop taking it.
Red blood cell renewal
The study authors found that if the donation is made every three months, the stress values remain low and stable. They believe that the therapeutic effect is due to the fact that the extraction causes a renewal of the red blood cells. These are more elastic and less pressure is needed to pump the blood and make it reach all corners of the body.
Doctors advise all hypertensive patients, especially those with higher values, to donate blood and to discuss with their doctors whether they can reassess the amount of medication they need.
Another advantage of donation by the hypertensive is that it would eliminate any problem of blood supply in hospitals to save many lives.
The study has been directed by the naturopathic doctor Andreas Michalsen (here you can read the interview we did in Cuerpomente).
