Blood Color Argument

[HuGo]

Ok, This might be a real stupid question. If anyone knows the actual truth, please say so.

So anyways, my friends were arguing about the color of our blood. One said blood is actually blue, and of coarse the rest of us said red.

Us *3 other friends* = No you idiot, how can blood be blue? Blood is red, dont you see it when it comes out? I had barely came out of class when i heard them talking about it so i have no idea how it started in the first place.

The Blue Colored Friend = He says, our blood is actually blue. Our veins are white/colorless. Then he says, why do you think the veins show up blue? I kinda was like, you sorta have a point. So he says, yes our blood is actually blue but when blood hits oxygen it turns red.

So i guess we need to go to space and find out. What do you guys think? Anyone actually studied blood before?

[aceyx]

de-oxygenated blood is blue. when the hemoglobin hits oxygen, it turns red.

it depends on when you check, but blood is made up of red blood cells so it is normally considered to be red.

[angel318ti]

that's why bllod is inside our bodies! so we don't waste time arguing over what color it is. damn it! you made me think.

[davep-uk]

i spent 3 years studying for my BSc in Human Physiology and Biomechanical science and this question was asked a lot in my first year.

1996318ti, your friend probably thinks that blood is blue because he has seen a physiological picture or diagram (probably in a book about the body) that shows some arteries in RED and some in BLUE. they do this to show which arteries, veins, and cappillaries carry oxygenated blood and which ones carry de-oxygenated blood. (the oxygenated blood wil be coloured in RED and the de-oxygenated blood in Blue.

this is because of the very complex way in which your blood works in conjunction with your cardio-vascular and respiratory systems to keep the blood oxygenated. blood is afterall the "life" inside us. its what keeps us alive.

Pulmonary circulation is the movement of blood from the heart to the lungs and back to the heart again. it works like this:

the veins bring de-oxygenated blood back to the heart entering the right atrium through 2 large veins caleed the vena cava. the right atrium fills with the de-oxygenated blood and then contracts, pushing the blood into the right ventricle. the right ventrical fills and then contracts pushing this "blue" blood into the pulmonary artery which leads to the lungs.

once in the lungs, gaseous exchange takes place and the carbon-dioxide (waste) is exchanged with fresh oxygen (which you have just taken a breath of). the fresh "red" blood enters the pulmonary veins and returns to the heart through the left atrium, then into the left ventricle and it then leaves the heart through the Aorta. then beginning its journey thriough the body again.

so... blood is at its most "red" when leaving the heart through the Aorta (the first leg of its trip) it sounds stupid but newly oxygenated blood looks really red. like an almost flourescent red. and after it has travelled around the body supplying all of your cells with oxygen it gets darker and darker (the less oxygen in the blood the deeper the colour) so by the time it reaches the heart to be re-gassed it looks very different to how it left the heart.

a simple analogy keeping in tune with this website would be:

freshly oxygenated blood: Helrot red
blood about to enter lungs: Techno Violet

the colours are not exact but not too far off.

so in answer to your question: we do not have blue blood. and just to comfirm things, oxygen is colourless so could not change the colour of your blood.

[Severian]

Sweet answer davep-uk!

Historically, royalty believed they had blue blood and common folks had red blood. Thus the term "blueblood" used to refer to someone of political importance.

Good luck convincing your friend. Here's a website that discusses the question, but I can't personally vouch for its validity:
http://www.globalclassroom.org/blublud.html

[Tyler]

Blood is Blue untill air touches it and then it turns red.

[davep-uk]

sorry tyler but you are wrong mate.

for the simplist answer i could find check this out:

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/bio99/bio99312.htm

[Tyler]

You can't beleive everything you read on the internet. Guess my college professor didn't know anyhting about science then.

[Platanos]

im an RN, well soon. Dave is right. Tyler think about when you get your blood drawn, it never touches O2 and its red cause they draw it from an artery.

USUALLY and i mean usually any site ending in .edu or .gov you can bet that their info is valid, usually..lol

[Severian]

You can't beleive everything you read on the internet. Guess my college professor didn't know anyhting about science then.
I know a ****load about science, but it doesn't mean I know everything there is to know. Dave never claimed that your professor didn't know anything about science, did you Dave?

Tyler, what was your college professor a professor of? I'm curious.

[davep-uk]

no i never claimed that. and wouldnt. all i stated in my reply is that there is a common misconception that blood is blue. my degree dissertation was based around the cardio-pulmonary system so i have a fair understanding of the way blood works.

also, your veins can look blue but you have to remember that you are looking at the vein through your skin and depending on your skin colour, bodyweight, particular vein that you happen to be looking at, your veins can look varying shades of colour including a deep blue.

i cant believe that such an argument has developed over such a simple subject. funny in a way but it makes me wonder how many people out there are walking around thinking that they are topped up with blue stuff.

[durnadupa]

I had a whole answer ready for this, damnit Dave.

I went to a medicine-focused highschool and now am in college for pre-med. So I am going to have to agree with Dave on this one, whatever he wrote was right.

[snwbrdrbum10]

take BIO 211 in college. I'm studying to be an RN and it's not blue. Shades of red my friend. and purple..ish..

[Platanos]

RN's represent!!!! bio 211..would that be a&p II?

[davep-uk]

glad that's sorted. :biggrin:

[HuGo]

hhhmmm, sometimes veins look green? how about that one. Or my body is just f*cked up. haha :tongue:

[durnadupa]

Green you say? What kinda drugs are coursing through your system?

[HuGo]

Green you say? What kinda drugs are coursing through your system?

haha, i dont do drugs at all. Well it looks grenish/blueish. not like this green but like a very lighter green.