[asdfman123]

Wait a minute: what if leeching was actually a legitimate treatment to remove blood toxins, maybe like mercury or lead poisoning?

By the way, looks like donation removes 8% of your blood, so you’d have to donate 9 times to halve the amount of any chemical in your blood (assuming it’s not also stored elsewhere in your body).

[swixmix]

"phlebotomy [...] A procedure in which a needle is used to take blood from a vein, usually for laboratory testing. Phlebotomy may also be done to remove extra red blood cells from the blood, to treat certain blood disorders. Also called blood draw and venipuncture."

https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-term...

[0_____0]

I mean the legit way to remove blood lead and mercury is chelation therapy,

[nylonstrung]

I've heard that whatever benefits you get from Thiel's vampire transfusions also just come from removing blood via donation

[amelius]

So does blood donation have an effect on life expectancy?

[Cthulhu_]

It sure does for the recipient!

[amelius]

:)

[Lewton]

Probably yes, but it's hard to tease out how much since there's a lot of restrictions on who can donate, so people who donate are already a healthier demographic

[amelius]

If the effect is likely positive, then isn't it in the interest of bloodbanks to find out?

[guyomes]

Given the long and controversial history of bloodletting [0], this might do more harm then good.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodletting

[jjeaff]

You certainly shouldn't donate blood in unsanitary conditions and while you are ill and weakened from some other sickness. Which is the conditions under which bloodletting usually occured in the past.

[asdfman123]

I’m not saying people should do it, of course. Just wondering if there’s at least a grain of truth in it.

[Cthulhu_]

I'm sure there's a grain of truth to it, else it wouldn't have been pushed as a treatment; likewise, there's a grain of truth in using ivermectin to treat the 'rona (in that it increases the survival chance of people who also have intestinal worms, see https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/ivermectin-much-more-t...)

[rcme]

Any usage prior to the widespread adoption of the scientific method is largely irrelevant.