Warning: This is a medical post, so there should be a lot of gory details within.

It's the fluid that keeps us going, It's the red juice that most people don't like to see. It'd the object of Nightmares and Halloween-themed parties!

But how much do you know about blood? Let's find out.

1. There's gold in your blood.

Yep, you're of a royal bloodline 😂. Know it or not, our blood contains some metal atoms like Iron, Copper, Zinc, Manganese, and so on. It also contains about 0.2millligrams of gold; a small amount but it's still something special! Next time anyone tries to belittle you, don't fall for any of that. You know your worth!

2. During a severe, sudden blood loss, your body can sabotage itself.

Have you ever wondered why people can bleed to death? I mean, there's an efficient system in place for blood clotting, so why can't it prevent suicide when people slit their wrists? Here's a tip:

You can feel your pulse on the ventral part of your wrist, meaning there's a lot of blood pressure there. The heart pumps 5 liters of blood per minute, so if there's a sudden blood loss of about 2 or so liters, due to the fact that the wrist bleeds quite a lot, your body goes into overdrive. How?

Because there's not enough blood available for the heart to pump effectively, due to the massive blood loss of about 2 liters, about 40% of your total blood volume, the flow of blood slows, and not enough blood gets to the muscles that actually;y help the heart do their job. So the heart becomes weak. And because the heart becomes weak, it can't pump enough blood, so an even smaller volume of blood reaches the heart muscles, which makes the heart even weaker.

If you understood that gibberish, you'll see that the cycle continues until the heart eventually stops beating. This system is known as Positive Feedback, and though it's necessary for some of the bodily functions, this is one of its downsides.

P.S: Do not attempt suicide, there's still so much in store for you in life! You are loved and appreciated. Also, make sure to always treat wounds and visit the hospital when you have nasty falls. Sometimes, it's not the big wounds on your skin, it's the demons inside.

3. Pregnant women have more blood than other women.

Duhhh!

You've got someone else in you, of course, you should. That's why you should take a lot of iron-rich food, like greens and red meat.

Better start liking that spinach!

Also, when a baby is born, you might notice that it has jaundice (yellowish pigmentation of the skin). As I said, might; it's not compulsory, but it's perfectly normal. It's as a result of excess bilirubin (a yellow pigment) in the baby's blood because unlike fully grown humans, they don't have a developed liver to eliminate the excess bilirubin.

That's why alcoholics sometimes have jaundice - the alcohol has killed their liver, lol. (Really don't know why I'm laughing about that, I'm a weirdo but let's continue anyway).

However, you should be worried if jaundice:

1. spreads to the abdomen, arms, or legs

2. increases such that the yellow color becomes less faint and more clear.

3. spreads to the white of the eyes

4. lasts for up to three or four days. In fact, go for regular checkups when you notice jaundice in your newborn.

Remember to do all these; jaundice that lasts too long can cause the bilirubin to precipitate in the child's brain/neuronal cells, causing kernicterus, irreversible brain damage.

(no lol this time, I hate when bad things happen to babies 😢😭)

4. Older people are more likely to get a stroke because of their reducing numbers of capillaries.

Capillaries are the real OGs in your body - the bouncers, the bodyguards, whatever you want to call them.

They are responsible for filtering out the blood, removing stuff like cholesterol, blood clots, and plaques of calcium. As we get older, our number of capillaries reduces, so we're more likely to get strokes.

Valar Morghulis.

In case you didn't know, an ischemic stroke is caused by a blood clot forming in the vessels of the brain or neck, preventing blood from circulating around the brain.

5. No one knew about the circulatory system until the 1600s

With all the smart ass biologists we had in those days, you'd think they'd have discovered this earlier.

Shame.

The discovery was made by William Harvey, who was sent by the King of England, James I then, to investigate a suspected witch.

So yeah, 'witches' did help shape science.

He did this by cutting open her toad to see if there was anything 'supernatural' about it. He instead discovered there were little tubes used to distribute blood. Before then, what did they think? We were all walking slushies or blood bags with bones and meat in us?

In a sarcastic summary: Long story made short, the woman lost her pet, he was an animal killer that the science community praised. Not really, he actually saved the woman's life. Read the full story here - it's interesting and crazy how people thought back then.

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/kentish-express-ashford-district/20110901/284472865328018

Ironically, Harvey died from a stroke 45 years later.

6. Blood causes Brain Freeze

I was thinking about this one a lot, since I wanted to end this article with a bang, and I thought this should do it.

Your blood is a bigger troublemaker than you think it is, and I think I've made that pretty clear in this post.

But have you ever taken too much ice cream too quickly and you got that jarring headache? And then you thought the ice cream entered your brain because you were a young dumb kid who didn't even know what a library looked like and believed books were from evil aliens who wanted to steal your brain?

No offense. That was me I just described.

Well, you and I were wrong.

Sarcasm: stop generalizing it bro, only you was that stupid.

Ozzyy: Shut up man!

Actually, the sudden change in the temperature of the mouth makes the brain's anterior cerebral artery to dilate suddenly as well, causing the massive headache.

******

Hope you enjoyed this, guys. See you next time, I guess.

Sarcasm: You say 'I guess' way too much

Ozzyy: *ignores and walks away*