There are several reasons one may have a low blood count – including not eating enough iron-rich foods, donating blood too frequently, chronic illness, or other invisible causes. Low iron levels may cause you to feel tired, and extremely low iron levels may cause damage to organs. When the body experiences low iron and hemoglobin, this essentially means you do not have enough red blood cells in your body to donate blood. The red blood cells are important because they carry oxygen from the lungs to other parts of the body. Iron is a nutrient that is found in the foods we eat, which then combines with certain proteins to become hemoglobin in your red blood cells. What is iron and what does it have to do with blood donation? Hopefully, the following information will shed some light on the subject for you. You’ve probably wondered why this happens and if there is anything you can do about it. When a donor is deferred, that means they are unable to donate blood that day. Have you ever walked in to Stanford Blood Center ready to do a good deed and donate blood only to be deferred for low iron count? Also referred to as low blood count, low iron, or low hemoglobin, approximately 10% of donors are deferred for this reason (). Visit our Iron and Blood Donation page for more. Please note, there may be more current information available related to iron and blood donation.
Newsletter Archive 2002-2019 (LifeLink).