<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by monahos:
What else do blood collection agencies screen for, besides the obvious?
At the time a free cholesterol screening was offered, and mine returned poor results (diet has been extensively overhauled since). Would this alone make one's blood undesirable?</font>
I don't really know everything they test for (other than any diseases that could be transmitted through blood), but I think many of them still offer the cholesterol screening. I don't believe high cholesterol would make your blood undesirable, however, since I constantly receive cards encouraging me to come back in.
Donating blood is actually how I discovered I had high cholesterol. Mine was high enough to cause me some concern and after a few visits with my physician, I'm now taking medication which has it under control.
I can't imagine that I would have ever gone in to have a cholesterol screening at my age. So...I guess you could say donating blood at least lengthened my life (since my doctor told me that my arteries were aging twice as fast as they should!).
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Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?