[Dr.Vad]

Уважаемый Антон Владимирович!

Специально покопался поглубже в этой теме и приведу отрывок из результата раскопок:

Meyers DG, Jensen KC, Menitove JE. A historical cohort study of the effect of lowering body iron through blood donation on incident cardiac events. Transfusion. 2002 Sep;42(9):1135-9.

Women experience less than half the incidence of and mortality due to atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CHD) than do age-matched men. It appears that age-adjusted CHD rates in women markedly increase after menopause and may then approach those of men. It has been suggested that estrogen-associated changes may be protective before menopause, after which that protection is lost. But observations as early as 1976 suggest that the risk of CHD in women is increased by simple hysterectomy in the presence of functioning ovaries. Recently, postmenopausal estrogen replacement has failed to prevent coronary events in two randomized clinical trials. These observations call to question the concept that estrogen alone is responsible for the female resistance to CHD.

The so-called "iron hypothesis" suggests that the regular menstrual loss of iron, rather than other effects of estrogen, protects women from CHD. A pivotal step in atherogenesis is the oxidative modification of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. The production of highly reactive oxygen species that form lipid peroxides is catalyzed by iron. In animals, iron loading and depletion modulate both lipid oxidation and atherogenesis in some studies, but not in others. Similarly, human observational studies have produced conflicting results regarding the correlation of iron status with cardiovascular endpoints. Phlebotomy in humans has been shown to reduce lipid oxidation susceptibility. Body iron stores, as indicated by serum ferritin levels, can be halved transiently through the donation of a single unit of whole blood. Thus, it has been proposed that donation of whole blood might reduce the risk of atherosclerosis in the donor.

Results of three studies testing this hypothesis in donors compared to nondonors have been conflicting. The Health Professionals Follow-up Study found no benefit from donation among 38,244 men over a 4-years follow-up. A prospective cohort study of 2682 Finnish men followed for 5.5 years noted an 88% reduction in acute myocardial infarcts (AMI) in whole blood donors. In a retrospective cohort study, a 33% reduction in combined cardiovascular events among 3833 men and women followed for 6.5 years was demonstrated.

These studies can be criticized regarding possible selection bias in comparing nondonors to blood donors who presumably are healthier and more health conscious. In an attempt to minimize this potential problem, a retrospective cohort study was performed comparing regular frequent blood donors to casual donors, with confirmation of cardiovascular events.

...The beneficial effect of frequent donation was greater in women (adjusted OR, 0.25; CI, 0.09-0.73) than in men (adjusted OR, 0.67; CI, 0.47-0.94). Among participants who had not donated blood before 1988, the adjusted OR was 1.88 (CI, 0.62-5.69) compared to those who had previously donated blood (adjusted OR, 0.49 [CI, 0.35-0.68]). There were no consistent effects for either age or smoking status. Тhe cumulative event rate among frequent donors, after censoring for deaths, was 7.2 percent versus 12.5 percent in casual donors (p < 0.001). When analyzed with the Cox proportional hazards model, the crude hazard ratio was 0.56 (CI, 0.43-0.74; p < 0.001) and the hazard ratio adjusted for lipid-modifying drugs was 0.62 (CI, 0.46-0.84; p < 0.001).

The current study suggests that frequent and long-term whole blood donation may be associated with a decreased risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular events. Confirmation of this observation will need to await the completion of clinical trials such as the Iron and Atherosclerosis Study (FeAST).