Anatomy of Blood

ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF BLOOD

Blood.

It is “the river of life” that suggest within us. It transported everything that must be carried from one place to another within the body such as nutrients, wastes, and body heat through blood vessels. For centuries, long before modern medicine, people recognize that blood was vital and its loss was always consider a possible of death.

Among all the body tissue, blood is the only one that is in fluid form although blood appears to be a thick, homogenous liquid, the microscope reveals it has both solid and liquid components.

Blood is sticky opaque fluid within a characteristic metallic taste. As children, we discover its saltiness the first time we stick a cut finger into our mouth. The color of the blood is depending on its oxygen content. A scarlet blood color indicates rich amount of oxygen, while dull-red indicates poor oxygen supply. Blood it much thicker than water and about five times thicker, it is due to its formed content. Blood is slightly alkaline, about 7.35-7.45 ph. Its temperature is about 38 degree Celsius, and much warmer than body temperature. Blood accounts for approximately eight percent of the body’s weight, and its volume in healthy males is five to six liters.

Function:

Distribution: delivering oxygen from the lungs and nutrients from the digestive tract to all body cells. It transports metabolic waste products from cells to elimination sites. (Lungs for distribution of carbon dioxide, and kidney for the waste products from alignmentary tract.)

Regulation: maintaining appropriate body temperature by absorbing and distributing heat throughout the body and to the skin surface to encourage heat loss. It also maintains normal PH in body tissues. Many blood proteins and other bloodborne solutes act as buffer to prevent excessive or abrupt changes in blood pH that could jeopardize normal cell activities. Additionally, blood acts as the reservoir for the body’s alkaline reserve of bicarbonates...