Blood Facts

  • Blood is the fluid that maintains life. It circulates through the body's heart, arteries, veins and capillaries.
  • Blood carries to the body nourishment, electrolytes, hormones, vitamins, antibodies, heat, and oxygen. Needless to say, its quite essential to life !
  • Did you know ? A woman has approximately 4.5 liters of blood in her body, while men have 5.6 liters.
  • By donating just one pint of blood, four lives can be saved. Imagine that !
  • Blood carries away from the body waste matter and carbon dioxide.
  • Blood fights against infection and helps heal wounds, keeping you healthy.
  • Fun Fact ! Your blood takes a very long trip through your body. If you could stretch out all of a human's blood vessels, they would be about 60,000 miles long. That's enough to go around the world twice.
  • Blood makes up about 7% of your body's weight.
  • Each day 400 gallons of recycled blood are pumped through the kidneys.
  • A newborn baby has about one cup of blood in his or her body.
  • White blood cells are the body's primary defence against infection.
  • Granulocytes, a type of white blood cell, roll along blood vessel walls to search and destroy bacteria.
  • Red blood cells carry oxygen to the body's organs and tissues.
  • There are about one billion red blood cells in two to three drops of blood.
  • Half your body's red blood cells are replaced every seven days.
  • Red blood cells live about 120 days in the circulatory system.
  • Blood platelets help clotting and give those with leukemia and other cancers a chance to live.