Each adult has about five litres of blood making up about eight percent of a person’s body weight.
Blood consists of a fluid known as plasma and several different types of cells – red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.
Red blood cells carry oxygen from the lungs to the other tissues; white blood cells fight infection; and platelets are vital for clotting that prevents us bleeding to death.
Oxygen is essential for all the organs in your body particularly your brain and muscles. So if you lose a lot of blood or don’t make enough because of a disease, oxygen levels can fall so low that you could die.
About 2,000,000 units of blood are transfused each year in the UK.
Blood supply depends on donors and is often limited or insufficient.
Look how fast the blood flows through your veins!
Video courtesy of MicroVisionMedical
Website designed by Graphics Lab, Edinburgh University
