Progressive Wednesday

This Wednesday: Ten Essential Pints

PROBLEM:

Okay, we’ve got a two-parter for you this week, and it’s got everything to do with that stuff giving our hearts a practical purpose (though I suppose you could argue that its other “purpose” is nearly as practical, nearly as required). Anyhow, I’m talkin’ ’bout blood. My fellow Potter fans, I’m not referring to the “Half-Blood Prince.” Though I’m pumped for that book to make it to film, I’m writing this Wednesday about the ten pints we all have pulsing through our Muggle bodies.

So here’s the problem: we don’t have enough of it in our hospitals; we don’t offer enough help to those with deadly and painful disorders. That’s it. It’s that black, it’s that white. Let’s do something.

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MAKE PROGRESS:

We’re going to ask you to do the same thing twice: give, baby, give.

• Donate, Part I
• Donate, Part II

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DONATE, PART I:

So, we need you to bleed. Though not for a vampire or a voodoo ceremony, but rather for, you know, your fellow humans. Why? Here's why:

• According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, every year in the United States, almost 5 million people are saved by blood transfusions. That's more than the populations of Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Vermont combined.
• Someone needs blood in the United States every two seconds. Put another way — three gallons of the stuff is used every minute here in the Red, White, and Blue.
• Approximately 20% of all patients entering hospitals require blood.
• 38,000 blood donations are needed every day to maintain our supply.
• Giving blood just once can save the lives of three people. I'm pretty sure that throws the “I don't like needles– excuse out the proverbial window.
• It's not just people in car accidents who need your blood. People with sickle-cell anemia, cancer, and leukemia require large amounts of transfusions. Severe burn victims need transfusions, as do folks undergoing organ transplants and many premature infants.
• Here's a final troubling statistic: only five percent of those who could donate blood do so (yours truly included… though that will change, and I mean pronto).

In case you’re at all concerned, you can't get an infectious disease from donating blood, and the process won't decrease your strength. And how often can you give blood? Every 56 days, baby. Just click this sentence for the blood donation eligibility guidelines from the Red Cross.

So give. And don't give until it hurts, because, if you're not a complete pansy, it really won't. If you'd like to donate blood through the Red Cross, just click this sentence. You can even watch an online presentation of the process. But if donating cabbage is more your speed, click right here, yo..

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DONATE, PART II:

Here we're going to tackle three blood diseases that tend to fly under the radar but are serious nonetheless, or maybe they're still serious because we let them fly under the aforementioned radar. (Please Note: I don't really think we've all got some sort of mythical and magical radar pulsing in our brains, though it might be cool if we did.) So, what illnesses?

– ¢ Malaria

1. The World Health Organization estimates that “every year more than 500 million people become severely ill with malaria.” To give that a little perspective, that’s more people than live in Canada (33 million), Mexico (103 million), and the United States (303 million) combined.
2. According to the Centers for Disease Control, “over one million people die [each year from malaria],” and most of them are infants, young children, and pregnant women.
3. While we’re facing a resurgence of the disease, it remains preventable (since we can whack the mosquitoes who transmit it) and treatable.

If you’ve got a fiver burning a hole in your pocket, consider donating it to the Malaria Foundation International.

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– ¢ Sickle cell disease

1. Lest I forget to mention it since I just learned it myself, this broader illness is frequently (and incorrectly) referred to as “sickle cell anemia.” So what is it? In brief, it’s an inherited blood disorder: sufferers have an abundance of an abnormal hemoglobin. Hemoglobin, for those of you keeping score, helps our bodies transfer oxygen to our various parts. Sickle cell hemoglobin dies sooner than normal hemoglobin, and it also doesn’t travel well through blood vessels, and you know, that’s kind of important.
2. A sufferer faces infection, severe pain episodes, hand and foot swelling, stroke, acute chest syndrome, and vision problems.
3. And here’s one of the biggest problems when it comes to the funding of new treatments and the possibility of a cure: racism. According to the NIH, most U.S. cases occur with African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans, and “about one in every 500 African-Americans has sickle cell disease.”

Since we can’t count on the racists raging in our culture, let’s do something ourselves. Please consider a donation to the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America.

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– ¢ Hemophilia

1. First, let’s clear up what we’re dealing with here. According to the National Institutes of Health, “hemophilia is [an] inherited bleeding disorder in which blood doesn't clot normally.” 18,000 Americans have inherited hemophilia. When you grow up in the boondocks like I did, you realize that 18,000 is a surprisingly large number of people (it’s about 12 times the population of my old hometown).
2. But the NIH also points out that “hemophilia also can be acquired… if your body forms antibodies to the clotting factors in your bloodstream.”
3. I realize that only 1 in 10,000 are born with hemophilia A and 1 in 50,000 are born with hemophilia B, but this rare disease bends my heart a bit because one of my favorite writers, Tom Andrews, died from complications from hemophilia when he was only 40.

So, please consider making a small donation (Who needs that Big Mac Value Meal today?) to the National Hemophilia Foundation.

Healing Health Care

Problem:

We all get sick. We go to doctors. We go to hospitals. Hopefully we get better, and soon. But sometimes we don’t get decent answers. Sometimes we get answers we can barely stand. Sometimes we get answers we can’t afford.

Well, we’ve got some answers of our own.

Make Progress:

My old man was a probation officer. My mom a phys. ed. teacher. Both were unionized, and in part because of this, they both had almost ridiculously excellent family health care. Growing up, I had regular check-ups, vaccinations, trips to the dentist and ophthalmologist, and both my sister and I had braces, all covered.

For my money, it’s hard to pursue happiness if you’re sick all the time (even more so if you’re, say, five years old), or if you’re worried about doctor’s bills racking up, or if your teeth are rotting despite your best flossing and fluoridating efforts. And kids should always be able to receive more than adequate health care.

While most of us aren't doctors, we can help the health of those around us (and even ourselves). So let's, not eat, but pick four apples today.

• Click
• Mail
• Watch
• Bleed

Healing Health Care: Bleed

Bleed:

Sorry to make this sound so sucking-flesh-wound grizzly, but we actually do mean “bleed.– Though not for a vampire or a voodoo ceremony, but rather for, you know, your fellow humans. Why? Here's why:

• According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, every year in the United States, almost 5 million people are saved by blood transfusions. That's more than the populations of Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Vermont combined.
• Someone needs blood in the United States every two seconds. Put another way — three gallons of the stuff is used every minute here in the Red, White, and Blue.
• Approximately 20% of all patients entering hospitals require blood.
• 38,000 blood donations are needed every day to maintain our supply.
• Giving blood just once can save the lives of three people. I'm pretty sure that throws the “I don't like needles– excuse out the proverbial window.
• It's not just people in car accidents who need your blood. People with sickle-cell anemia, cancer, and leukemia require large amounts of transfusions. Severe burn victims need transfusions, as do folks undergoing organ transplants and many premature infants.
• Here's a final troubling statistic: only five percent of those who could donate blood do so (yours truly included… though that will change, and I mean pronto).

In case you’re at all concerned, you can't get an infectious disease from donating blood, and the process won't decrease your strength. And how often can you give blood? Every 56 days, baby. Just click this sentence for the blood donation eligibility guidelines from the Red Cross.

So give. And don't give until it hurts, because, if you're not a complete pansy, it really won't. If you'd like to donate blood through the Red Cross, just click this sentence. You can even watch an online presentation of the process. But if donating cabbage is more your speed, click right here, yo.

Blood puppies.

Okay, I’ll admit — I’m trying to shock you a bit with that title. But this is a surprising bit o’ news. Check this sucker out from the Peach State:

The American Red Cross and DeKalb County Animal Services are teaming up so one good deed will lead to another.

People who give blood at any Red Cross blood drive in DeKalb can get a coupon good for a discount at upcoming pet adoption days sponsored by the animal shelter.

The coupon can cut up to half the cost off adopting an animal in need of adopting.

This is our kind of progressivism. One fantastic organization helping another, encouraging people to do two great things for the “price,” or lack thereof, of one. So why is this particular brand of goodness so important? Here are the facts, Jack:

• Every year in the United States, almost five million people are saved by blood transfusions.
• According to the ASPCA: “Five out of ten dogs in shelters and seven out of ten cats in shelters are destroyed simply because there is no one to adopt them.”
• Someone needs blood in the United States every two seconds.
• Between 5 and 9 million animals in shelters are euthanized each year.
• Approximately 20% of all patients entering hospitals require blood.

We’ll cover both subjects on Wednesdays, but in the mean time, if you’d like to help out the Red Cross, just click this sentence. And if you’d like to help out your local ASPCA, just click this sentence.

(And because we’re kinda fans of this organization too, if you’d like to help out Progressive Wednesday, just click this sentence.)