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Donating blood can reduce the risk of heart attacks. "Blood donations may be associated with a decreased risk of (heart attack) in middle-aged men," conclude a team of Finnish researchers led by Dr. Jukka Salonen of the University of Kuopio in Finland. The findings of the study were published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 1998.
Investigators studied the 9-year incidence of heart attack among a group of 2,862 middle-aged Finnish men. Interviews conducted with each of the subjects revealed that 153 had donated blood at least once in the previous 2 years.
The authors found that just one of the donor men (0.7%) suffered a heart attack over the study period, compared with 316 (12.5%) of the 2,529 non-donors.
The authors of the study speculate that blood donation may protect against heart attack by reducing overall blood levels of iron.
Scientists at Kansas University Medical Center also found that men who gave blood experienced 30 percent fewer incidents of heart disease than men who did not. The study results may help to partially explain the lower rate of coronary heart disease in menstruating women.
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