Blood donation
The most direct way to lower an excessive iron store. A whole blood donation removes around two hundred and fifty milligrams of iron at once.
Order of magnitude
One whole blood donation, repeated after medical consultation if ferritin stays high.
The offset of this dial does not sit on another marker but in the target itself: repeated donations can push ferritin below the target range and cause iron deficiency. That is why repetition belongs in a doctor conversation rather than in a calendar. The WHO guideline supports the direction; an opened donation trial with a percentage is missing, so there is no size.
Effects in detail
Each row is a directed edge from our database, with range, latency, evidence grade and the condition under which it applies at all.
| Marker | Effect | Latency | Mode of action | Outcome | Evidence | Condition | Sources |
|---|
What this measure costs
Counteracting effects of the same measure.
No counteracting effect is on file for this measure. That does not mean there is none, only that we found no defensible edge.
Moves without implying progress
Informational or no established effect: the marker moves or was checked, and that is not progress.
| Marker | Effect | Latency | Mode of action | Outcome | Evidence | Condition | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ferritin | moves, and does not count. Lowers Direction known, size not established The edge applies only with a ferritin in the upper range. At a value inside the target range the reduction would not be a gain but a risk. WHO 2020 treats ferritin as an iron-status marker; no pooled percentage after a whole-blood donation sits in the opened sources. | not specified | chronic | unclear | Evidence grade B | Ferritin at or above 150 ng/mL |
Sources
Full details of every study the rows above rely on.
WHO guideline on use of ferritin concentrations to assess iron status in individuals and populations
World Health Organization · WHO (Geneva); also NCBI Bookshelf NBK569880 · 2020 · Guideline