How to Avoid Blood Transfusions

There are three aspects to the challenge of avoiding blood transfusions.

Blood Transfusion Avoidance Education

Promote Optimal Blood Production

Who Am I To Tell You the Benefits of Avoiding Blood Transfusions?

Who Am I to Tell You How To Do This?

As one of the early nurses certified in Bloodless Medicine and Surgery in the world, I have case managed, consulted to doctors and helped thousands of people who chose to avoid blood transfusions for safer options. Since starting in this field, not one of those I have helped has died from not getting a transfusion.

According to Dr. Richard Spense, MD, there are no high level studies showing that a blood transfusion saves lives. Any of the studies looked at show the opposite.

"From any to the more blood you receive, the greater the morbidity (risk of getting sick) and mortality (risk of dying)." --Richard K Spence MD

I would suggest one caveat to the above. You will have to find a doctor and team that is experienced in treating with patients without blood transfusions. If you are properly treated, the research shows you will do better. You will recover faster. You will have less long term complication than those who get blood transfusions.

Transfusion Avoidance Education

The Growing Demand for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery This is from a magazine article from the year 2000.

Here is a video from a hospital that specializes in bloodless medicine and surgery. It should be noted that they have the lowest blood transfusion rate in the world and the best outcomes in their state and probably the world.

Optimize Blood Production

There are two aspects of helping your body make blood: Providing the building blocks to blood and potentiating the things that help us make blood.

Blood Building Blocks: While there are medical ways to improve your blood counts using supplementary hormones that help build blood.

These include...

EPO / Epogen [epoetin alfa]
Procrit [r-HuEPO]
Mircera (methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta)
Aranesp (darbepoietin alfa)

These help stimulate the production of red blood cells in the bone marrow. This corrects anemia and minimizes or eliminate the need for blood transfusions.

Before starting blood stimulating therapy, your iron stores will be looked at. In some cases, giving iron is not a good idea. Your doctor will know and tell you.

The iron typically looked at are the transferrin saturation and serum ferritin levels.

According to research, Transferrin Saturation (TSAT) should be at a minimum 20 % and ferritin at least 100 ng/ml.  TSAT is percentage, the ratio of serum iron and total iron-binding capacity multiplied by 100. This value tells the doctor how much of the serum iron is actually bound. Ferritin may be falsely elevated from the normal range (an acute phase reactant) in iron deficient dialysis patients.  Supplementation in these patients is with the goal of bringing an iron saturation greater than 20%. 

You should have a serum folate level (3.6 to 20 ng/dl) and normal Vitamin B12 levels.

The above are what the literature suggest. There are many things that you can do yourself even before you go to the hospital. These should be coordinated with your health care team.

These are the basics of natural remedies for anemia.

First, the Water Cures Protocol is the first thing you need to promote blood production. Blood is a complex substance. There are numerous processes that go on inside the body that promote the production of blood. Many of these processes are hormonal. Hormones require water and minerals. Every process in our body requires water, electrolytes and minerals.

If we are dehydrated or we are lacking in electrolytes, the body processes will not work at optimal levels. This is a common sense solution. There is no specific research that shows it helps with blood production.

Iron: Black strap molasses, 1 table spoon three times a day.

While we do not recommend giving calcium, if you should take it, be aware it can decrease the absorption of iron.

Protein: Organic Almond Butter 1 Table spoon up to 3 times a day.

B Vitamins: Bloodless doctors often recommend B-6, B-9 and B-12.

Vitamin C: Minimum 1000 mg, 6000 is better. Helps iron absorption.

Cysteine: a precursor to the production of glutathione or GSH. This is the master antioxidant, master immune booster, master detoxifier. Studies found, while not looking for it, that increasing glutathione increased blood counts. Additionally, GSH, as an antioxidant, reduces the various things that limit blood production.

Selenium:The 200 micrograms we need daily can be obtained from 2-3 Brazil nuts a day. Selenium has anticancer and antioxidant properties. Selenium and vitamin E help with the absorption of each other.

Water: Micronized water is controversial and mostly dismissed as pseudoscience. Yet, there is research on a Korean water filter from the University of Idaho that found it increased blood counts in pigs. Wile this is not conclusive that the same results will happen for humans, there is additional research shows it improves health. While these machines or filters are expensive, they may help. The Korean filter is a FDA approved medical device. It is not available in the US as of 2016 to our knowledge.

Note: While we are not recommending this micronized modality, we are not discounting it either. We have seen the health benefits it can produce as we have tested the Korean filter.

Go To The Top of Avoid Blood Transfusion