I Didn’t Bloody Know That: Trivia and Facts about Blood
Medical Trivia
Most of us know what blood is and a little about what makes up blood. January was blood donor month. Here’s some blood trivia and facts.
Blood Trivia:
What precentage of our body weight is blood?
– Blood makes up about seven percent of your body’s weight.
What three types of cells is blood made of and what is their functions?
– Blood is made up of:
White Blood Cells: These are the fighting blood cells, that fight off invaders and cells not supposed to be in your body.
Red Blood Cells: These are the cells that carry oxygen rich blood to the rest of your body.
Platelets: These help clot blood in injuries.
How long do blood cells live?
– Red blood cells live about four months in our bodies.
Blood is made in the bones, true or false.
– True, in fact, blood is naturally made in the bone marrow, inside the bone.
Everyone donates blood in their lives at one time or another, true or false.
– False, only a small portion of healthy Americans donate blood, about 5%.
How much blood is in a newborn baby?
– There is about one cup of blood in a newborn baby’s body.
People in the past believed that letting out the blood could help disease, true or false.
– True, a tomb in Egypt has a depiction from Ancient Egpytian times of someone being treated by bleeding. Bleeding is the same as bloodletting a technique that our ancestors used to let someone bleed. They believed that the blood held the diseases and by letting the blood out, it would cure them.
What is the offical term for bloodletting or drawing of the blood?
– Bloodletting is called phlebotomy. It was an acceptable practice until the late 1800’s. Today phlebotomy is any drawing or removal of the blood from the body. Those who draw your blood for a blood test have studied phlebotomy.
The first blood transfusion was in the 1600’s, true or false.
– True, in 1665, the first blood transfusion was recorded. It was given from a dog to another dog by Richard Lower. The first recorded human to human blood transfusion wouldn’t come for another 150 years.
What is the protein that makes the red blood cells red called?
– Hemoglobin is the protein found in red blood cells that carries the oxygen. It also gives the red blood cells their red color.
