Blood, a bodily fluid not given the recognition it deserves. Health magazines write lengthy articles about detoxing your kidneys, your liver and your colon. Doctors suggest cleanses to patients to restart metabolism and eliminate negative bacteria in the gut.
Why aren’t we being instructed to cleanse our blood too? After all, blood plays a huge role in helping the body function with the use of four components working together to complete necessary functions.
The Functions of Blood
Blood is made up of red and white blood cells, platelets and plasma. Together, they travel through the body regulating blood pressure, forming blood clots so your body doesn’t lose too much blood, and carrying oxygen to major organs and tissues.
Blood also helps maintain body temperature and helps eliminate waste by pushing it to the kidneys and liver. Furthermore, your blood helps you fight infections by carrying antibodies throughout the body.
Unfortunately, there are times when blood malfunctions because something is preventing it from doing its job. Malfunctions can happen due to infections, diseases, lack of nutrients, or genetics.
Blood Disorders
Anemia is a common blood disorder that happens due to a decrease in red blood cells. This decrease can lead to feelings of weakness, fatigue, and shortness of breath. Other disorders involving red blood cells include malaria, sickle cell anemia, and additional varieties of anemia.
White blood cell disorders make it hard for you to fight infections. Diseases involving white blood cells include lymphoma, leukemia and myeloma.
Blood disorders can also affect your platelets and plasma. Deep vein thrombosis, hemophilia, and thrombocytopenia are examples.
Many times, bacteria in the blood can cause an infection that can lead to major problems. Like Lyme Disease, caused by a bite from a deer tick that carries bacterium, which enters a person’s system and spreads through the body.
One difference with Lyme Diseases is that the bacteria does not flow with the blood. Instead, it attaches to the lining of blood cells and crawls at a slow pace to areas of inflammation. By attaching itself to blood cells, they avoid being flushed away by the flow of blood.
A similar infection that can happen at the same time as Lyme Disease, and that is also caused by a tick bite, is called babesiosis, named after the parasite babesia.
Treating Blood Disorders
Many doctors will encourage you to purify your blood using natural methods first. Natural cleaning can mean many different methods. Some will tell you to fast and drink a lot of water, some will give you a list of foods to help you cleanse.
There are many popular diet detoxes you can follow that will help eliminate toxins from your body and help improve organ functioning.
However, there are times when natural detoxes are just not good enough to get rid of bacteria and infections in the blood. And if your blood has been affected by something like a tick bite, more serious treatments are required.
Fortunately, there are scientific, medical methods to help clean your blood. One method with positive results is called Apheresis.
What is Apheresis?
Apheresis involves a blood donor, a patient and a qualified medical doctor. This is not an ordinary blood transfusion, however.
With apheresis, a patient who has infected blood needs replacement blood to get rid of the bacteria living in their bloodstream. They may not need all a donor’s blood. Some only need specific blood parts replaced.
For instance, some patients may need healthy platelets, while others may need healthy plasma. White and red blood cells can also be replaced using that of people who have been cleared to donate.
There are many people willing to donate blood. But not everyone will qualify.
The donor and their blood must pass rigorous testing to make sure there are no chemicals, toxins, diseases or other impurities that could cause the patient more harm. Once cleared, the doctor can begin the process of apheresis.
There are different types of apheresis.
Types of Apheresis
Common types of apheresis include plasmapheresis, or plasma exchange. In this procedure, your doctor will separate the liquid part of your blood which is also called your plasma. This blood purification is especially helpful for people struggling with autoimmune issues.
During plasmapheresis, your doctor will remove the plasma that is causing problems. Once removed your doctor has options. He or she can treat the plasma until it is healthy again, and then return it to your blood. Or, they can replace your plasma with a healthier version.
Because you only need plasma replacement, your doctor will not extract red or white blood cells, or platelets. They will only focus on plasma.
Another type of apheresis is red cell exchange, which is what would be used if you have an illness that originated from a tick bite or some other parasite.
Red cell exchange is just that, you are exchanging your damaged red blood cells for healthy, new red blood cells. The new cells are donated and allows your doctor to extract only the red cells needed to make you healthy again.
Plateletpheresis can help people who have injuries, extreme inflammation and diseases causing chronic inflammation. Most times, doctors will use remove your own platelets, treat them, and then inject them into the spots on your body needed repair.
Getting Help
Therapeutic Apheresis is a technique that requires specialized skills to operate the equipment that allows them to extract blood and separate the components. Once separated, the healthy blood is injected into the patients, and the leftover components are returned to the donor.
It seems difficult but in just a few hours, you can begin experiencing better health. That is, if you find the right doctor.
The right doctor is certified and licensed and has a specialty in blood disorders. He or she is experienced in performing transfusions and is constantly researching the latest medical news and trends. They do all of this to help their patients heal, which is their top priority.