10 Interesting Facts about Blood and Blood Cells
Like all humans who have red-colored blood, there are few organisms that have varying blood colors. Spiders and octopuses have blue color blood, cockroaches have white/colorless blood, grasshopper, leeches, and some varieties of earthworm have green color blood and so on. Apart from these, there are more facts about the blood. In this article, a few interesting facts about the Blood and Blood Cells of the human body.
Blood is the only fluid connective tissue in the human body and it plays a major role in the transportation of nutrients, respiratory gases, hormones, etc. Apart from transportation, blood is also involved in maintaining and regulating body temperature, pH, and other thermoregulation processes. As per the scientists’ estimations, the total volume of the blood in the human body should be approximately seven percent of the total body’s weight which will be about 5 to 5.5 liters (1.5 gallons) of blood.
Blood is generally composed of red blood cells (RBCs), white blood cells (WBCs), blood platelets, and plasma that includes protein, salts, and water. William Harvey, an English physician, was the first person to recognize and conduct experiments on the blood and its circulation in the human body.
10 interesting Facts about Blood and Blood Cells
- Blood makes up about seven percent of total body weight. A healthy adult human body contains approximately 1.325 gallons of blood and a newborn baby has approximately one cup of blood in its body.
- Patients suffering from certain diseases like trauma, cancer, and undergoing open-heart surgery require platelet transfusions for their survival.
- There are four major blood types in the ABO blood groups system which are differentiated by the presence of antigens and antibodies on the surface of the erythrocytes or red blood cells. Among which blood group O is called as universal donor and blood group AB is called as the universal recipient.
- Like the eye, skin color, hair texture and other body features, blood group is also inherited genetically from our parents.
- As per studies conducted, different blood groups result in varying nutritional needs and affect personality, fertility, stress levels, etc.
- These blood cells are found floating in the yellow-colored liquid called blood plasma. This blood plasma is composed of about 85 to 90% of water along with other nutrients, proteins, gases, hormones, etc.
- There are around 2 to 2.4 trillion red blood cells in one bottle of blood and about 140 to 150 billion red blood cells in one ounce or 0.03 lt of blood.
- Our body produces 16 -17 million red blood cells every second and it takes 20 to 60 seconds for a single drop of blood to travel from the heart to other parts of the body and vice versa.
- A single drop of blood contains about forty percent of red blood cells, one percent of white blood cells, four percent of platelets and fifty-five percent of the plasma.
- Apart from erythrocytes, leukocytes, thrombocytes, and hormones, human blood also contain metal atoms, including copper, chromium, iron, lead, manganese, zinc and 0.2 milligrams of gold.