HEALTHY LIVING
Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Blood Healthy
Blood performs many crucial functions but also reflects what is going on inside your body. ::
BY GARY GREENBERG I
magine amazon trying to deliver everything 100 trillion households need to survive while, at the same time, carting
away all their trash. What sounds like a logistic
impossibility is exactly what the 8 pints of blood coursing through your body do every minute of every day to service every cell in your body. Blood not only nourishes and
cleanses cells but also transports immune system soldiers to protect them. It monitors some 60,000 miles of
blood vessels for leaks, and instantly rounds up a crew of platelets to patch them up. Blood regulates body temperature
and balances water and pH levels with help from the lungs and kidneys. “Blood is what keeps people
alive,” says hematologist A. Koneti Rao, M.D., a professor at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine. “One amazing thing about blood is
that it transports vital substances like oxygen and glucose to every cell in the body while other substances, such as hormones, are made in one place and distributed to other specific places where they act,” he explains. Blood is considered the body’s only
fluid tissue. The fluid part, a little more than half, is plasma, a straw- colored liquid that is 92% water with
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some proteins, mineral salts, sugar, fats, and other substances thrown in. The tissue part is mostly comprised of tiny red blood cells along with white blood cells and platelets. Red blood cells transport oxygen-
carrying hemoglobin, the iron-rich protein that gives blood its distinctive crimson hue. The cells actually ditch their nuclei to make room for their precious cargo. White blood cells seek out and
destroy viruses, bacteria, and other invaders. And the platelets, which are shaped like plates, grow tentacles to bind together in creating clots.
A WINDOW INTO HEALTH “Blood not only has many vital functions but also reflects what is going on in the body,” Rao notes.
“For example, if you eat a large,
fatty meal, lipid levels will go up in a few hours. Diet, exercise, and everything else we do shows up in the blood.” That window into the body is
why blood tests are the primary diagnostic tool used by doctors. Just a small sample contains countless biomarkers that reveal almost everything about health. The inherent problem with blood
is that it is constantly contaminated by both natural bodily waste and environmental toxins. Fortunately, the body has a very efficient blood detoxification system, consisting primarily of the liver and kidneys. But it is challenged, and often
overwhelmed, in a world awash in man-made toxins and populated by an ever-evolving posse of pathogens,
DROP/MAKHBUBAKHON ISMATOVA/SHUTTERSTOCK / WOMAN/ASIAVISION/SHUTTERSTOCK
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