Blood

Blood makes up about 7% of your body's weight.

An average adult has about 14 to 18 pints of Blood.

One standard unit or pint of Blood equals about two cups.

Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to all of the body.

Blood carries carbon dioxide and other waste products back to the lungs, kidneys and liver for disposal.

Blood fights against infection and helps heal wounds.

One unit of donated whole Blood is separated into components before use (red Blood cells, white Blood cells, plasma, platelets, etc.)

There are four main Blood types: A, B, AB and O.

Each Blood type is either Rh positive or negative.

The three main types of cells making up our Blood are the White Blood cells, Red Blood cells and Platelets:

White Blood Cells (WBCs) are the largest of the three types of cells and are responsible for fighting infections or germs. White Blood cells have a rather short life cycle, living from a few days to a few weeks. One drop of Blood can contain from 7,000 to 25,000 white Blood cells. If an invading infection fights back and persists, that number will significantly increase.

Red Blood Cells (RBCs) make up approximately 40% of Blood volume, carry oxygen to the cells of your body and return to the lungs to excrete carbon dioxide.

Platelets, the smallest of the Blood cells; make up 5% to 7% of total Blood volume. Platelets form a 'mesh' net to form clots in the Blood to help stop bleeding.

There are about one billion red Blood cells in a few drops of whole Blood.

Red Blood cells live about 120 days in our bodies.

Red Blood cells can be stored under normal conditions for up to 42 days.

Frozen red Blood cells can be stored for ten years, and more.

Platelets must be used within five days.

Platelets are small Blood cells that assist in the process of Blood clotting helping those with leukemia and other cancers, controlling bleeding.

Plasma, the fourth major component of Blood, is a sticky, pale yellow fluid mixture of water, protein and salts. It is 95% water. The other 5% is made up of nutrients, proteins and hormones.

Blood Plasma constitutes 55% of the volume of human Blood.

Plasma helps maintain Blood pressure, carries Blood cells, nutrients, enzymes and hormones, and supplies critical proteins for Blood clotting and immunity.

Plasma can be collected from a normal healthy donor twice weekly (max. every 48 hours) and is the most frequently donor paid-for component of Blood. Plasma is often referred to as "the college students beer money."

Type AB plasma has been considered as the universal Blood plasma type, and therefore AB plasma is given to patients with any Blood type.

Frozen Plasma can be stored for up to one year.

Human Blood; red Blood cells, white Blood cells, plasma and platelets are made naturally by the body in the bone marrow.

Two million red blood cells die every second.

There are approximately 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body.

Seven percent of a humans body weight is made up of blood.

In the early nineteenth century some advertisements claimed that riding the carousel was good for the circulation of blood.

Each day 400 gallons of recycled blood are pumped through the kidneys.

By donating just one pint of blood, four lives can be saved.

Blood is such a good stain that Native Americans used it for paint.

The kidneys filter over 400 gallons of blood each day.

The average life span of a single red blood cell is 120 days.

Blood accounts for about 8% of a human's body weight.

A woman has approximately 4.5 liters of blood in her body, while men have 5.6 liters.

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.

Half your body’s red blood cells are replaced every seven days.

If all the blood vessels in your body were laid end to end, they would reach about 60,000 miles

OK, we have a nice list of science details about blood to help us understand more about blood. What about an understanding of blood from an Old Testament perspective? I can see your eyes crossing as I write this! With that said I am going to step into the waters of explaining what blood is from an Old Testament perspective, all done with the question in mind of why did Jesus die for us? The plan is to have this series wrapped up by Easter Sunday to help us further understand how awesome Jesus is and what he accomplished on the cross.