The Color of blood

[Inuyasha]

Here’s an interesting problem. What color is blood. I know that when it has oxgyen attached to the hemogoblin it is red but what if there is no oxygen as in a vein. Hmmm. Since veins are blue does that mean that blood without oxgyen is blue?

[Antje]

When it is in the viens it is a deeper red purple but the blue you see is the outer lining of the vein. By the way inuyasha is the best!! 😉

[Inuyasha]

Thanks a ton Antje.

[biostudent84]

Deoxygenated blood is still dark blue, regardless of what color the blood vessels are. The carbon dioxide and other wastes that the cells turn the cells this color. Oxygentated blood essentially is Oxygen attracted to the Iron atom in the center of hemoglobin. Essentially, rust is what makes your blood cells red.

[Solid Snake]

Well, RBC are not blue. They swing between dark red and bright red depending on whether it is carrying oxygen or not. The blue color comes from looking at your deoxygenated blood through layers and layers of skin as well as the vein itself. Rust on your blood is a good way to think of it, but remember that the hemoglobin binds oxygen loosely and the strength of the binding depends on factors like temperature.

[Inuyasha]

blood is actually many colors. Depedening on different types of blood oxgyenated, deoxgyenated, cancerous, and varies from person to person.

[Solid Snake]

what color does blood become when it is cancerous?

[Cyranian]

Well, hemoglobin binds protons and CO2 to cause a conformational change in the protein and facilitates the release of oxygen. When the CO2 levels in the blood decrease ), carbon dioxide is released, increasing the oxygen affinity of the protein. So I’d think that blood during the disease of sickle cell anemia would be dark red because of the significance presence of O2.

[Solid Snake]

But the problem with sickle cell anemia is that it is less flexible than a normal RBC it is also unable to hold as much oxygen as normal cells

[Inuyasha]

Hey there is actually a kid in my high school who beleives he’s a vampire. He say’s the color of blood without oxygen is the same color for everybody. But i think that different people have different shades of color in blood. Who is right?

[Solid Snake]

I think there will even be differences in the color of cells of a single persons blood it all depends on the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in blood

[Inuyasha]

Sounds about right Raj but i really wonder… Do you have any websites or proof to back up what your are saying?

[Pyre]

Funny — I was talking to a guy via AIM/Yahoo who believed he is a vampire. Somehow it sounds like the same guy, too..

[Inuyasha]

Are vampires in biological terms capable of surviving without blood. They could be like bacteria just really big ones. DO vamps exist? Biological?

[biostudent84]

Vamps exist (it’s a slang word for someone bisexual).

Vampires, as a biological organism do not. Culturally, some humans make a practise of drinking blood, but they get no nourishment from it that they cannot get elsewhere.

[Cyranian]

But they definitely cannot survive on blood alone, can they? It would be drinking just water. Sure, you can live for quite a while with just that, but you’ll get quite skinny.

Besides, didn’t this “blood lust” originally came from the idea that you can reach immortality in Indian, Greek, and Christian culture? More of a religious practice then, I’d think.

[biostudent84]

Correct. While blood might fulfill some dietary requirement, it by no means is able to sustain human diet alone.

I’m not sure on the cultural aspect…I’ve studied many religions, but not Vapmyrism.

[Inuyasha]

I thought that blood had tons of dissoved nutrittuents. So it might be possible to live off blood.

[Cyranian]

So does beef, milk, water, and other types of food. However, living off just one kind of food would not keep you alive for very long. Unless, that is, if you are willing to eat a lot of that particular food just to take in ALL of the nutrients necessary to keep you living. Personally, I’m not sure if anyone with the practice of drinking blood would want to drink gallons and gallons of it everyday.

[biostudent84]

Enough blood in your stomach, and your body will force you to vomit. I believe the threshold is a quarter cup.

[hybop]

quote Inuyasha:

Here’s an interesting problem. What color is blood. I know that when it has oxgyen attached to the hemogoblin it is red but what if there is no oxygen as in a vein. Hmmm. Since veins are blue does that mean that blood without oxgyen is blue?

Blood is never blue, contrary to apparently popular opinion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood

“Human blood is red, ranging from bright red when oxygenated to dark red when not. It owes its colour to hemoglobin, a metalloprotein compound containing iron in the form of heme, to which oxygen binds. There exists a popular misconception that deoxygenated blood is blue and that blood only becomes red when it comes into contact with oxygen. Blood is never blue, but veins appear blue because light is diffused by skin. Moreover, the blood inside is dark red and exhibits poor light reflection. From a physiological perspective, veins and arteries appear similar when skin is removed and are seen directly.”

[abstemious_entity]

quote :

So does beef, milk, water, and other types of food. However, living off just one kind of food would not keep you alive for very long. Unless, that is, if you are willing to eat a lot of that particular food just to take in ALL of the nutrients necessary to keep you living.

considering what Inuyasha said that

quote :

I thought that blood had tons of dissoved nutrittuents. So it might be possible to live off blood.

wouldn’t the person’s diet matter? I mean if you have different blood sources the nutrient content would also vary, right? and maybe the nutrients might be enough to support the vampire…what do you guys think?

[MrMistery]

Of course the diet of the person whose blood you are drinking matters. If you drink the blood of someone with a balanced diet than you might be able to live(you would need to drink a lot though). if you are a vampire than that means that your digestive system is adapted to blood… So why not… theoretically vampires could exist…
But this is a somewhat stupid conversation, wouldn’t you guys say so?

[Daik]

In the last 4 months I’ve seen postings in several forums about the
dangers of drinking blood. They fall into three categories:

1) HIV (real danger, but avoidable)
2) Drinking human blood makes you puke because you can’t digest it (if
you puke its psychological – your stomach doesn’t know the difference
between human blood and steak juice)
3) Weird blood-borne infections (such as this Staph Aureliens thing)

Look, folks, blood is blood is blood. If you eat meat, you eat blood
(kosher meat having most of it removed). If blood went “bad” in 15 to
20 minutes from exposure to air we would all die from eating ANY meat
(except the vegetarians, of course) cause it takes DAYS for meat to
travel from the slaughter house to the supermarket to the dinner
table, sometimes weeks. Yes, there can be nasty things in blood, and
it will spoil like any other animal-derived protein, but this business
of DRINKING BLOOD WILL MAKE YOU DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH IN 12 HOURS OR
LESS IS BULLSHIT!

In this regard (on the physical as opposed to psychic level) human
blood is not significantly different than any other animal blood.

Don’t worry about oral sex and menstruation – as long neither of you
have any STD’s you’re both safe. Oh, by the way, if you have cold
sores restrain yourself – you wouldn’t want to give your lady friend
genital herpes. Other than that, have fun.

>—Broomstick—
===

From: devens@uoguelph.ca (David L Evens)
Subject: Re: Myth debunked – Blood Drinking
Date: 23 Jul 1994 19:31:33 GMT

Consider this about the supposed mechanism for this S. Aurelius
poisoning:

This bacterium is allegedly found fairly commonly in the bloodstream.
There is a term for the condition of having bacteria living free in
the bloodstream. This is called septisimia. It is usually fatal
within hours.

As well, if these bacteria were present in the bloodstream and
produced a toxin on exposure to oxygen, then they would do so in the
bloodstream, since the blood is reoxygenated in a human every minute
or so on average when it goes through the lungs.

This whole notion is simply garbage.

[MrMistery]

Who said drinking blood is dangerous?
And, about the fact that you throw up when you drink it, it really is true. When you eat meat there is some blood entering your digestive system, but you can not compare it to how much would enter if you drank it

Regards,
Andrew

[A passenger]

I just passed by to be honest …(will most likely stick around to expand my knowledge a little aswell ^^

– Knowledge is power – – but without the wisdom to wield this power, knowledge grants nothing but self-consumption -)

I can see this is an old thread but still, I’d like to mention that I myself am a blood drinker (yeah ooo point and stare at the freak…)

You do digest it more or less.
Living of blood… I personally can’t, I add bloody meat and such so then it works, but blood alone won’t do you good, you’ll end up feeble and weak.

Regards
Mr. The Freak

[Dr.Fry]

I didn’t read the entire post, so you may have already figured out the complete answer for yourself. However, to put the matter at ease, here is the real answer to why venous blood, also called deoxygenated blood, the blood in your veins or blue blood, appears to be blue on the surface.

For many years biologist had the notion that blood was blue, as it appeared in veins, and that blue blood could not exist outside of the body while in an oxygen environment because the air would instantly turn the blood red (exposure to oxygen). Recently, 4 years ago to be more exact, a study was done which involved a series of complicated experiments, mostly on fresh bodies of pigs that still had an ample supply of blood and on fresh dead humans before their body fluids were drained (the humans were, of course, donating their bodies for the sake of science). The experiments involved consisted of extracting blood in an air tight environment so that venous blood could be seen in it’s true colour. After several months of research, the results obtained stated that venous blood in a no-oxygen environment (or low oxygen so long as the supply of O2 in the air cannot fully meet the demand) would be a deep shade of red, almost purple. Arterial blood, or oxygenated blood, is bright red.

So why does venous blood appear blue?

Well for that you need to understand the structure of a vein. For those of you who have done dissections (and that may be the majority) you will notice that veins in many mammals similar to humans are milky white in colour and translucent. Veins also have blue pigments in the tissue. These pigments fade after death, however, and make it difficult to detect this. Visible veins are generally very close to the surface of the skin. As light shines through the skin, it enters the veins and is reflected by the blood. If the veins were clear tissue, we would see venous blood for the colour it really is. However, because of the milky tissue and blue pigments, the blood appears to be blue.

So there you have it. I rushed the last bit because my break is running short and I still need to eat, however it should still be understandable. If you would like to know more on this subject, there are many publications online in very simple scientific terms that go more in-depth into the science of WHY all of these things happen (this post was long enough without me getting into that). You will, however, need patience to go over all of that material. Off the top of my head, I cannot think up any exceptional websites with information, however using Google you will be able to discover all you need.

I hope my post has helped any of those that are still confused on this issue.

Dr. James D. Fry

[kotoreru]

Purely as a point of interest: Haemoglobin has a 50x higher affinity for Carbon Monoxide than it does for Oxygen.

Hence why one can kill themselves with car exhausts.

[arian]

it is not dangerous or you get poisoned if you drink blood. On the stomach under the reaction of HCl acidious it destroyes all the cells. The bllod has red color and there is no any blue color in the blood. You may read on the Anatomy book that blood is made up by blood cells (erythrocites) and they have hemoglobin which a qurternary protein and it is a red color. It is oxygenated or deoxygenated it goes fro pink coloru to dark red but not blue.
So, there is no any blu blood.

[SeekerForKnowledge]

quote Solid Snake:

But the problem with sickle cell anemia is that it is less flexible than a normal RBC it is also unable to hold as much oxygen as normal cells

That would mean when someone with sickle cell anemia could have significant anaerobic cellular respiration, right?

[MrMistery]

Only skeletal muscles and a few other cells in the human body can carry out lactic acid fermentation. For many cells, including neurons, no oxygen means death.

[JustAnotherStar]

I always thought that blood was just one colour – red. Untill my friend said something about blue blood and we all looked at her like she was stupid. Then a while later i read something about deoxygenated blood (i think?) being blue. But how can we actually know?

[canalon]

quote JustAnotherStar:

I always thought that blood was just one colour – red. Untill my friend said something about blue blood and we all looked at her like she was stupid. Then a while later i read something about deoxygenated blood (i think?) being blue. But how can we actually know?

Read the completeanswer by Dr Fry a few posts above on the same page. As for knowing the right colour of deoxygenated blood. When drawing blood it is not in contact with air and usually drawn from the veins, and the dark red colour is obvious. Want to see it, go give blood, you will see it for yourself and help others…

[juliana29]

Well! the actual color of blood is red, but the shade of red varies from person to person.

——————————————-
juliana

[F4T32008]

Hm… I didn’t read all of the posting.. But for me, I think blood has 2 colours.
1. Bright Red that contains fresh blod
2. Dark red that contains dirty blood.

But, I don’t know it’s true or not.

[jennifer25]

Blood is red in color. But I have noticed that the shade varies.
Deoxygenated blood is more red in color.

———————————————————-
jennifer

[F4T32008]

Deoxygenated ? Is it a condition where there is no oxygen anymore or a little oxygen left ?

[MrMistery]

yes, the condition where most of the hemoglobin is reduced..

[rakeshsoni]

why in vein be blood color is blue

[rakeshsoni]

can you give my answer how to be blood cencer

[rakeshsoni]

how can we drink blood

[canalon]

quote rakeshsoni:

why in vein be blood color is blue

This question has been answered many times in this thread, so I suggest you simply read it from the start

quote rakeshsoni:

how can we drink blood

Open mouth, pour blood in mouth (or suck it in), swallow.

As for the other question, I suggest rewording/developing/spell checking to make it understandable if you want an answer.

[Muzammil]

(sighs) being a biology student in grade 10, I too beleived at first that the colour of venal blood is blue, besides, i don’t think it has anything to do with genes. Venal blood is dark red in colour. You see, it’s basic physics which leads us to the distortion of light. The blood in the veins absorbs the red colour from the light ( the light here is diffused by the skin) and reflects the blue colour. Therefore, we get a certain blue tinge.

[sunghoo]

They are actually purplish red. The reason it appears blue is how our brain processes information relatively to generate color perception.

[Kefuie]

I think there are a lot of genius here ^^ WOW!

[leosmith678]

Well it is due to Hemoglobin present of blood. Also iron-haem group is present at the center of each haemoglobin molecule which absorbs light in the blue portion of the spectrum, leaving a red colour.

[brendon]

Actually, when blood is not oxygenated, (hasn’t passed through the lungs), it IS blue. It’s the reaction with nitrogen in the air that makes it red, which is why when you get a cut, or when it passes through your lungs, it’s red.

[patmurray12]

There is a tribe in Africa that lives on blood and milk. They raise cattle, and get both from their livestock.

Go here: http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/staff/darlene … masai.html

[Keeta242]

quote brendon:

Actually, when blood is not oxygenated, (hasn’t passed through the lungs), it IS blue. It’s the reaction with nitrogen in the air that makes it red, which is why when you get a cut, or when it passes through your lungs, it’s red.

Actually, this is just a myth. The truth is that your blood is an orange-red when it is in your vein, and hasn’t come into contact with oxygen. When you get a cut, or the blood in some way leaves your body, it turns a darker shade of red. This is because of the small amount of iron. You see, it’s so small, it rusts almost instantly, causing your blood to appear darker.

[anesthesia]

Blood is RED. Blood is red whether it is arterial or venous. Only the shade of red changes. Anesthesiologists continuously monitor the oxygen saturation of patients in the operating room. While studying anesthesiology, Anesthesia residents are required to learn how the monitors work and the physics behind how the monitors work. All oxygen saturation monitors, both transmittance and reflective utilize red and infrared wavelengths of light to measure oxygen saturation because BLOOD IS RED. Blood is always red whether it is fully saturated with oxygen or in some partial state of oxygen saturation. Blood in the human body is always at least partially saturated with oxygen whether it is arterial or venous. Therefore, Blood is RED. It comes down to physics.

[mustachemanwashere]

quote Antje:

When it is in the viens it is a deeper red purple but the blue you see is the outer lining of the vein. By the way inuyasha is the best!! 😉

inuyasha is the best

[jon123]

quote anesthesia:

Blood is RED. Blood is red whether it is arterial or venous. Only the shade of red changes. Anesthesiologists continuously monitor the oxygen saturation of patients in the operating room. While studying anesthesiology, Anesthesia residents are required to learn how the monitors work and the physics behind how the monitors work. All oxygen saturation monitors, both transmittance and reflective utilize red and infrared wavelengths of light to measure oxygen saturation because BLOOD IS RED. Blood is always red whether it is fully saturated with oxygen or in some partial state of oxygen saturation. Blood in the human body is always at least partially saturated with oxygen whether it is arterial or venous. Therefore, Blood is RED. It comes down to physics.

It makes a good sense but pigment present in blood also matter a lot!

[leesajohnson]

Blood is red because it is made up of cells that are red, which are called red blood cells. But, to understand why these cells are red you have to study them on a molecular level. Within the red blood cells, there is a protein called haemoglobin. Each haemoglobin protein is made up subunits called hemes, which are what give blood its red colour.
http://omlc.org/spectra/hemoglobin/

[joemasters]

Blood is always red, even when it is in the body. The reason it looks blue or purple is because the skin makes the veins appear this way. All blood has some level of oxygen in it that naturally gets taken in through breathing and through the skin.

[Author]

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