Blood: Our lifeline

Blood is the lifeline of bodies. It performs the vital functions to keep our body healthy. It is vehicle for transporting the oxygen which we breathe to the individual cells without which they will perish. Oxygen is bound to the iron present in the red blood cells and the metalloprotein is called hemoglobin. It also collects the resultant carbon dioxide to bring it back to the respiratory organs to be dispensed from the organism.

When the supply of oxygen to the body is low at high altitudes, you can see the reddish spots in the cheeks of many people because the blood is not called upon to carry proper amounts of oxygen, some of it stays in the cheeks.

Second important component of the blood is white cells. These cells protect us from the infections. Third important component is the platelets. These along with some proteins and vitamin K help in forming the blood clots to stop the loss of blood when we are wounded. White cells also aid in the wound healing because there are bacteria lurking to infect the wound. Interestingly, some particular strains of the dreaded E.Coli bacteria which inhabits our body synthesize vitamin K which our bodies cannot synthesize themselves.

All blood cells are made within your bone marrow. Stem cells exist inside the marrow and can form into red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and more stem cells. Leukemia is cancer that relates to abnormal cell production in the bone marrow. One form of treatment involves replacing some of the bone marrow with healthy bone marrow.

Remember some fun facts about blood. There is no substitute for blood. Red blood cells live about 120 days. Plasma, which is 90 percent water, is a pale yellow mixture of water, proteins and salts. Thirteen tests are performed on donated blood, 11 are for infectious disease. Newborn baby has about one cup of blood in his or her body.