The Color of blood

[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]

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]

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