It’s red and you need it. That’s what most people know about one of the most important substance in the world. Your blood keeps you alive and without it, nothing in your body could get to where it needs to be. Blood brings oxygen to your cells and removes waste products (functions you simply can’t live without). But there is more to blood than meets the eye. Did you know that most of your blood consists of water? In spite of this, however, there is no way to create blood artificially. It is completely up to our body to create it. In fact, red blood cells start their life in your bones (well, your bone marrow to be exact). After mutating for seven days they are released into your blood stream to begin their important duties. Thanks to the relentless pumping of your heart, each blood cell will now make a complete cycle through your body in just about 30 seconds. Each red blood cell will continue to circulate for over 100 days before it dies, and is replaced by a new red blood cell. Isn’t amazing how your body works together to sustain you? These are 25 Crazy Things You Might Not Know About Blood. If you want to know more about how your body works, take a look at these 25 amazing facts about the human body you may not be aware of.
Featured image via Flickr by Andrew Mason
Your body has over 160,000 km (100,000 miles) of blood vessels. which if laid end to end, would stretch 2 and a half times around the Earth
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia There are four main blood cell types, A, B, AB, and O. Each can be positive or Negative. AB is the Universal recipient while O negative is the universal donor.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia In an average life time the human heart pumps 1.5 million barrels of blood (that's enough to fill 200 train tank cars)
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia One unit of blood can be separated into several components: red blood cells, plasma, platelets and cryoprecipitate.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Pregnant women have roughly 50% more blood by week 20 of pregnancy than they did before conception
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia In emergencies, coconut water can be used as a substitute for blood plasma
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia A blood cell can make a complete circuit of your body in less than 30 seconds
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia There are about .2 mg of gold in your blood stream
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Your blood accounts for 8% of your body weight
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Mosquitos prefer people with blood type "O"
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Every year, the average meat eating American ingests enough blood to fill a can of soda
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Those strange bright white dots you see floating around when you look at the sky are white blood cells (it's called blue field entoptic phenomenon)
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia George Washington was bled to death by doctors. This is because bloodletting was a common practice back then. It was supposed to get rid of "bad blood"
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia A newborn baby has about one cup of blood in his body
Source: wikipedia, Image: Pixabay A single car accident victim can require as many as 100 pints of blood.
Source: wikipedia, Image: Wikipedia In Japan, blood type is considered to be an indicator of personality. This belief is so ingrained that the Japanese version of Facebook has a "blood type" dropdown for profiles.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Black Ink for HP printers is more expensive than blood.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Have you ever wondered why papercuts hurt so badly? It's because since they are superficial, there is no blood to protect the nerves following the cut
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Your nose runs when it's cold because the vessels in your nose receive more blood to keep it warm. This causes the vessels to dilate and produce more mucus.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia The Bororo people of Brazil have the same blood type: "O"
Source: wikipedia, Image: Wikipedia Your cornea extracts oxygen directly from the air. It has no blood supply.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Pus is actually white blood cells that died fighting off infection
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia The President's car has a container full of blood (of his blood type) in the back
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Only female mosquitos drink blood, males are vegetarian
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia It would take nearly 1.2 million mosquitos, each sucking once, to completely drain the average human body of blood
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