Is There Any Side Effect of Donating Blood?

Is There Any Side Effect of Donating Blood?

Are you aware that a single pint of the blood you donate is capable of saving up to three people? For this reason, we all should take an active role in donating blood and encouraging others to do the same. Blood donation saves lives.

Furthermore, it also has benefits to you – the donor. For example, it reduces your risk to liver ailment and heart diseases. It also lowers the risk of cancer. On top of that, other benefits you derive out of donating blood are:

  • Reduced stress
  • Improved emotional wellbeing
  • Improved physical health
  • Eradication of negative feelings
  • Reduces feelings of isolation
  • Offers a sense of belonging
  • Free health checkup

Despite all that, many blood donors complain of a few side effects, which include:


The blood donation experience may leave you with a few bruises. For the most part, the bruises would disappear without further medical attention. However, do not fail to inform your doctor in case the bruising becomes cumbersome or grows into something that appears much worse.

Normally, bruising emerges from the bleeding that continues under the skin. The bruises could be the result of a pierced vein, which then causes blood to leak and make its way to the surrounding tissues.

Continued bleeding

Some patients never stop bleeding several minutes or hours after donating blood. After donating blood, the doctor or nurse would normally cover the area with a bandage. Within a few minutes, you should be able to remove the bandage without suffering adverse effects.

Nevertheless, there are times when the bleeding doesn’t stop. At such moments, you should call or contact your doctor. Before doing that, however, you may want to apply a bit of pressure on the site. You could also eradicate the problem by raising your arm for a few moments.


Additionally, you may experience a bit of dizziness after donating blood. Dizziness is a common side effect too. If not handled well, you may fall. Nausea and lightheadedness are quite common but they need you to know what to do during and after the blood donation session.

To eliminate this problem, you may have to lie down for some time once you have finished donating blood. While lying down, make sure that your feet remain up until you start feeling better. However, inform the blood donation center the situation if nausea continues for hours.


Pain is also a common side effect after or during blood donation. Nevertheless, it’s important to point out that blood donation is not pain-free. Go into the blood donation center expecting to experience some pain. For this reason, a bit of pain is bearable and understandable, though.

However, what should you do if the pain persists for the next few hours? If you encounter unexpectedly sharp and prolonged pain during and after the blood donation, you should immediately alert the person in charge of the exercise.

Alternatively, take a pain reliever with the permission of your doctor to avoid complications.

Physical weakness

Blood donation may leave you feeling extremely physically weak. It may leave you feeling exhausted beyond what you expected or are accustomed to. For the most part, the weakness is limited to the affected arm.

In such cases, you would soon get better after taking a few moments to rest the arm. More importantly, make sure that you inform the blood donation personnel about any unwelcome experience, such as physical weakness. Also, avoid intense physical activities for several hours.

As you may be aware now, blood donation has tremendous benefits to the recipients, givers, and healthcare providers. The blood you donate has the potential of saving the lives of people that you may never meet. For this reason, you should not keep off from blood donation.

Nevertheless, approach each exercise with a bit of caution. After all, the fact that you donated blood does not make you immune to some of its common side effects. Always let your doctor know about the side effects even if they can disappear without any medical intervention.

Is a Cholesterol Level of 5.3 High?

Most people go through life not worried about issues such as their cholesterol levels. High cholesterol levels are dangerous to your health. In some cases, they could prove fatal by increasing your risk to some of the most life-threatening diseases.

The human body needs as much cholesterol as it can get, but only at the right levels. For this reason, you should go for regular cholesterol checks to ensure that yours isn’t at a dangerously high level. A blood test done once every 4-6 years will tell you if your cholesterol is too high.

So, what is a high level? Is a cholesterol level of 5.3 extremely high or manageable?

Are there symptoms

The first thing that you will notice if something is wrong with your body is the presence of a set of symptoms. However, where high cholesterol levels are concerned, you will never display any symptoms. In such instances, you will only know after undergoing a blood test.

Despite that, some candidates should prioritize meeting a doctor for blood test. Anybody who is at risk of heart disease should make the blood test a matter of great priority. If your exposure to factors that increase risk to heart diseases is limited, then you need the blood test done:

  1. Once if you are between 9 and 11 years
  2. Repeated if you are between 17 and 19 years
  3. Repeatedly once every five years for adults

What is a desirable cholesterol level?

Ideally, doctors determine a person’s cholesterol levels based on the following factors:

  • Age
  • Weight
  • Gender

As you age, your body will always produce more cholesterol. For this reason, your levels will be higher today than they were 4-5 years ago. That explains why everybody needs to go through blood test to determine the cholesterol levels at least once every five years.

Despite all that, a cholesterol level of 5.3 will always be high for you depending on several factors, as stipulated above. However, not all high levels of cholesterol are bad. That is because the following three categories are used in measuring cholesterol levels:

  • Total cholesterol
  • LDL
  • HDL

LDL is also known as the bad cholesterol. On the other hand, HDL is recognized as the good cholesterol. Based on that, LDL should be as low as possible at all times. Total cholesterol should always be low too.

HDL levels ought to be high. After all, it is the good cholesterol. The body needs it to function optimally. If HDL remains low, then the body will be unable to offer protection against the likelihood of developing stroke or heart attack.

How to keep the cholesterol levels low

Now that you have established that cholesterol levels of 5.3 could be high for you, it’s important to provide you with a few solutions to this problem. As earlier stated, you need to go for blood test first. Thereafter, the doctor will recommend what you need to do to lower it.

For the most part, you should embrace a healthy lifestyle. In this regard, eat as much healthy food as possible. Additionally, make sure that you take part in as much exercise as you can. The more you do this, the lower your dangerously high cholesterol levels will get.

Keep yourself active, especially if you have a family history of high cholesterol levels. In some instances, your doctor may advice you to take certain medication. That is fine, especially for women who are experiencing menopause.

Medication is also highly recommended for adults whose cholesterol levels are dangerously high. For them, medication is necessary since a change in diet or lifestyle may not be enough to produce the desired results.

Remember, a cholesterol level of 5.3 could be too high for you, thus increasing your risk of developing heart attacks or other related ailments. Therefore, start acting appropriately to keep these levels low for as long as you can despite the toll that the aging process has on you.

Is Banana Good for High Cholesterol?

Cholesterol can be either good or bad. LDL is the bad cholesterol while HDL is the good variety. The body needs just the right amount of cholesterol for building new cells. It also helps in insulating nerves and producing the hormones the body needs to function optimally. Normally, the cholesterol that the body produces through the liver helps it. However, what we get through foods can be quite harmful by increasing cholesterol and making us susceptible to certain heart-related ailments, such as heart attacks and stroke. To prevent this, you would have to start consuming healthy food. Can banana help? Is it healthy food?

Bananas are rich in fiber

High-rich foods have proven themselves effective at reducing cholesterol levels for years. For this reason, one should start consuming as many bananas as possible. However, do it cautiously since it too much of it could lead to other unwanted problems. Fiber is good for the many benefits that it offers. These include the improved digestion and reduced risk of chronic diseases. Improved digestion helps to keep your system healthy. It improves production of bile, which the body relies on for breaking down foods and absorbing nutrients. High levels of cholesterol would cause formation of crystals that become hard stones in the gallbladder.

Bananas are rich in Vitamin B6

Vitamin B 6 is essential in the production of more HDL or the good cholesterol. HDL plays critical roles in determining how the body functions. For starters, it is responsible for the removal of all the bad cholesterol, which is notorious for finding its way into parts of the body where it’s not required. Furthermore, HDL also reduces risk of heart diseases. Based on this, it is clear that we need as much Vitamin B 6 as we can get. One way of ensuring that the body has enough of this vitamin is by consuming suitable amounts of bananas. This way, the body would have sufficient supply of the good cholesterol.

Bananas are rich in Potassium

Any diet that you take to reduce cholesterol will always be rich in potassium. Consequently, it is not rocket science to link the presence of potassium in bananas to the ability of these types of fruits to lower cholesterol. Other than that, potassium is also highly effective at improving how the heart functions. At this point, it would be wise to mention that potassium never treats or prevents heart ailments. However, it plays an indirect role in both by keeping cholesterol levels low. In addition to all that, potassium has been used (together with magnesium and calcium) in the following ways:

  1. Reducing blood pressure
  2. Lowering the risk of heart problems

Bananas are rich in nutrients that lower blood sugar levels

Bananas are perfect at lowering cholesterol courtesy of some of the ingredients they contain, which are renowned for reducing blood sugar levels. In this regard, we have nutrients such as pectin. Furthermore, the more you eat bananas after your regular meals, the more you reduce your appetite. As you do this, you will prevent yourself from consuming foods that increase blood sugar levels. Consequently, you will have indirectly lowered cholesterol levels. As long as you are in good health, and not diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, you should have no problem eating bananas to control your cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

As you may have realized by now, bananas are good for people with high cholesterol levels. The fruits improve digestive health. They also contain the ingredients necessary for keeping cholesterol down. Additionally, bananas contain the antioxidants that are effective at lowering cholesterol too. If that’s not enough for you, perhaps the fact that bananas also contain the nutrients that the body needs for ensuring that blood sugar levels remain low at all times. What is more, it also features the right amount of fiber to aid digestion and keep the body functioning well without spiking cholesterol to exceedingly dangerous and unmanageable

What is the Best Drink to Lower Cholesterol?

High cholesterol levels are dangerous to your health. They can mess your health and life by increasing your risk to heart-related ailments. For this reason, it’s important that you learn how to lower your cholesterol. For the most part, you will achieve plenty of success by embracing healthy living. Often, that includes watching what you eat and drink. A good starting point would be to identify the best drinks for lowering cholesterol.

Below are a few of the drinks that you must take to keep your cholesterol low.

Green Tea

For centuries, people have benefited from the healing properties of tea. Those properties include the ability to lower cholesterol levels thus making you capable of staying healthy and avoiding some of the dangers associated with high cholesterol. Green tea is the undoubted champion when contemplating a perfect drink for lowering the bad cholesterol, or LDL. Its effectiveness is down to the presence of antioxidants.

Tart Cherry Juice

A regular intake of tart cherry juice is capable of reducing your cholesterol levels mightily. What is more, it also has a positive effect on cardiovascular health. Furthermore, tart cherry juice mainly focuses on lowering LDL, which is universally known as the bad cholesterol. It doesn’t interfere with the HDL in any significant manner. Additionally, the juice ensures that your blood pressure remains stable thus reducing exposure to some dangerous ailments.

Citrus Juice

Citrus fruit contains the ingredients necessary for ensuring that your cholesterol levels remain low and don’t spike to dangerous levels. Citrus fruits are effective because of the antioxidants that they contain. Therefore, prepare your glass of citrus juice today. Drink at least a glass every day or as regularly as you can. What is more, you have several options regarding the kind of citrus juice to drink. These include:

  1. Oranges
  2. Grapefruit
  3. Lemon

Cranberry Juice

Just as effective in lowering cholesterol is the regular intake of cranberry juice. The juice can be quite sweet to taste. For this reason, you are better off with a sugar-free version of cranberry juice, particularly if your goal is to lower the cholesterol levels that appear to be spiking all the time. You will notice a massive difference in your cholesterol levels if you make a habit of drinking two glasses of this plain juice on a daily basis.

Cranberry juice is effective because of the powerful antioxidants it contains that:

  • raise HDL levels
  • lower LDL levels

Ginger Tea

Ginger Tea, just like green tea, is also renowned for its ability to lower cholesterol levels thus keeping you healthy. For centuries, different communities have used it for treating diarrhea and nausea among other health problems. Now, scientists have discovered that it also plays a crucial role in keeping LDL levels low. Other than that, it has many other advantages too. For example, it can help in the prevention of atherosclerosis. However, limit yourself to 4gm daily.

Pomegranate Juice

Pomegranate juice has also proven itself capable of lowering the dangerous LDL cholesterol. It does this courtesy of its antioxidants. More specifically, it contains a good amount of polyphenols, which will always ensure that your cholesterol doesn’t shoot up to dangerously high levels that threaten your health. However, you should be certain that what you are drinking is actually pure pomegranate juice rather than a concoction of sugar and water.


Water is preferable to any sugary beverage that you like drinking. It has several healthy benefits. The water might not be as sweet as other types of beverage but is more effective than the rest in ensuring that your cholesterol levels don’t spike beyond your control. As long as you hydrate your body regularly, your cholesterol levels will stay at healthy and safe levels. Therefore, start taking water regularly.

What is clear is that you don’t have to go to the doctor for medication. You only need to identify the right drinks to start taking and your cholesterol levels will begin dropping faster than you ever imagined. Once they drop, you should keep them at that level. Otherwise, all your effort and sacrifices will have been in vain. Therefore, take plenty of water, green tea, ginger tea, cranberry juice, citrus juice, tart cherry juice, and pomegranate juice.

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