Credits: Canva
Are you that kind of person who celebrates milestones of your life with getting a tattoo? These milestones could be anything, including the things you achieved, or the things you could not achieve but taught you a lesson. If you are this person, then you must have wondered if you can donate blood with all the tattoos on your body? There are lots of rumors on how can one donate blood, or if at all they are allowed to donate blood. So let's get into its nitty gritty!
As per American Red Cross, in most states, a tattoo is acceptable if the tattoo was applied by a state-regulated entity. Which means the tattoo artist must be licensed and must practice following all the guidelines, using sterile needles and ink that is not reused. The same is the guideline for cosmetic tattoos, which includes microblading of eyebrows. If it is done by a licensed artist in a regulated state, then it is acceptable.
However, if you got your tattoo in a state that does not regulate tattoo facilities, you must wait three months after it was applied.
Similar is the case with body piercings. It has to be done following the regulation, here the key is that the instrument used has to be a single-use equipment and disposable. Which means if you are getting it by a gun, or an earring cassette, they have to be disposable. In case you got your piercing with a reusable gun or a reusable instrument, you will be required to wait for three months.
The reason behind the wait time is associated with the concerns of hepatitis, which could be easily transmitted from donors to patients through transfusion. All blood donations are thus tested for hepatitis B and hepatitis C, with several tests. However, not always are these tests are perfect, thus the three-month period is given.
Donating blood after getting a tattoo can be dangerous as unclean tattoo needle could carry bloodborne viruses, which are hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV. In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated its guideline, making the wait time shorter from one year to three months. This is because if you contract a bloodborne illness, it could be detectable within the period of 3 months.
There are other reasons why you may not be allowed to donate blood. As per the American Red Cross, you are not allowed to donate blood if you have
As per the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Blood Bank, these conditions make you permanently ineligible from donating blood.
While there are certain conditions that makes your permanently ineligible, there are other conditions that makes you temporarily ineligible from donating blood. These include:
Credit: AI generated image
Heart attacks are often associated with severe chest pain, but health experts warned that many cases present with unusual symptoms such as jaw pain and nausea that are frequently ignored or mistaken for less serious conditions.
Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD) or heart attacks is the leading cause of death worldwide, responsible for roughly 9 million deaths annually
Speaking to HealthandMe, the experts highlighted unusual symptoms that may indicate a heart attack — particularly in women, elderly people, and individuals with diabetes. These include:
Dr. Prasanthi Ganji, HOD - Emergency Medicine at Manipal Hospital, Gurugram, called these “referred symptoms”, where pain from the heart travels through shared nerve pathways and is felt in other parts of the body, including the jaw, neck, shoulders, or back.
The expert explained that nausea may occur because reduced blood flow and stress on the heart can affect the nervous system and digestive response.
Also read: Can Extreme Heat Trigger Heart Palpitations? Expert Explains Risks
According to her, many patients mistake these symptoms for acidity, fatigue, or muscle strain, leading to dangerous delays in treatment.
“Recognizing these warning signs during the critical golden hour can significantly improve survival and reduce long-term heart damage,” Dr. Prasanthi told HealthandMe, adding that symptoms lasting more than a few minutes should never be ignored.
Dr. Saifa M. Latheef, Associate Professor and Clinical Head – Emergency Medicine at ShardaCare-Healthcity, said public awareness about silent or unusual heart attack symptoms remains low.
“Many people believe that a heart attack always causes severe chest pain. However, this is not true in every case,” she said.
Dr. Saifa noted that some patients may experience heaviness in the jaw, vomiting sensation, breathlessness, or extreme weakness without chest pain, causing them to delay emergency care.
“A heart attack occurs when blood flow to the heart suddenly gets blocked, making immediate medical attention crucial to save heart muscle and prevent complications,” the doctor told HealthandMe.
The health experts also flagged the delaying attitude of patients, which increases the risk of poorer outcomes.
Dr. Nitin Jagasia, Regional Director Emergency, Western Region, Apollo Hospitals, said the biggest mistake patients make is waiting too long before seeking help.
“As an emergency doctor, I meet patients every day who say, ‘Doctor, I thought it would go away,’” he told HealthandMe.
Dr. Jagasia warned that heart attacks do not always begin with crushing chest pain and that unusual symptoms like nausea, sweating, stomach discomfort, or unexplained fatigue are often mistaken for acidity or stress.
“A simple rule to remember is this: if a symptom is sudden, severe, or frightening, do not wait for it to pass,” he said.
Read More: Early Exposure To Lead And Lithium Can Cause A Lifetime Of Mental Exhaustion
The experts emphasized that timely treatment, CPR awareness, and rapid emergency response remain the strongest defences against sudden cardiac emergencies.
They also highlighted the importance of preventive measures such as regular exercise, healthy eating, stress management, quitting smoking, and controlling diabetes and blood pressure.
Obesity is indirectly associated with stroke risk. (Photo credit: AI generated)
Obesity is a very significant modifiable risk factor for brain stroke, which is an extremely dangerous illness caused by an insufficient or lack of blood supply to the brain. Stroke leads to disability, memory impairment, paralysis, and sometimes death. As obesity is related to many illnesses, regulation of weight can considerably decrease the probability of suffering a brain stroke.
Dr Bhupesh Kumar Mansukhani, Director of Neurology at Neuromet Wellness Care & Diagnostics, in an interview with Health and Me, said, "Obesity is an excessive accumulation of fat in the body, which causes damage to health. Obesity is determined using the BMI index. Those who suffer from obesity are more prone to illnesses like hypertension, diabetes, and elevated cholesterol levels, all of which put people at a higher risk of suffering a brain stroke. Excessive fat, particularly abdominal fat, affects the arteries, leading to their constriction."
Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is yet another major connection between obesity and stroke. Obesity causes stress on the cardiovascular system and elevates blood pressure levels. Such a state poses a risk of injury to the blood vessels in the brain, causing their rupture or blockage. Obesity usually results in diabetes, and both conditions harm the walls of the blood vessels and increase the risk of blood clot formation. Besides, the increased concentration of cholesterol contributes to plaque accumulation in the arteries.
The presence of obesity in the body stimulates inflammatory reactions and reduces the rate of circulation, which may cause the formation of blood clots. As a result, these clots are delivered to the brain and prevent blood from delivering oxygen to it, and ischaemia becomes the trigger for an ischaemic stroke, which is the leading type of stroke.
The advantage here is that obesity is a modifiable risk factor, which can actually be avoided or managed. Proper nutrition, physical exercise, adequate sleep, and the absence of negative behaviours will enable an individual to maintain a healthy body weight. It is also important to take part in preventive measures, such as having regular medical examinations and testing one’s blood pressure, glucose levels, and cholesterol.
To conclude, it can be noted that obesity contributes significantly to increased risks of developing a brain stroke due to many reasons, including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and vascular diseases. Being a modifiable risk factor, it can be easily avoided.
Credits: Canva
Cancer is, without a doubt, one of the most feared diseases known to man. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research - National Cancer Registry Programme (ICMR-NCRP), India gets 1.5 million new cases of the disease every year, with one in nine people likely to develop cancer in their lifetime. On the other hand, the American Cancer Society (ACS) and National Cancer Institute (NCI) expect about 2,114,850 new cases in the United States this year alone.
A new study claims that the weight loss drug, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), may help slow the spread of some cancers. The research was done by the Cleveland Clinic and claimed that the medications may slow down the spread of several obesity-related cancers, including lung, breast, colorectal, and liver cancers.
The official press release by the Cleveland Clinic mentions their research being included 12,112 patients with the following types of obesity-related cancers, ranging from stage 1 to stage 3, and half of these participants started a GLP-1 medication after their cancer diagnosis. The others were taking a DPP-4 inhibitor comparator, "gliptins," a different class of diabetes medications.
The comparison between the two groups clearly shows that the patients who took GLP-1 have a much lower progression to stage 4 disease for four types of cancers.
The study author, Mark David Orland, MD, of the Taussig Cancer Institute at Cleveland Clinic, said, "Our study found that use of GLP-1 drugs, compared to DPP-4 inhibitors and other antidiabetic drugs, was associated with a meaningful reduction in cancer progression across four solid tumor types."
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