Blood and Lymphatic System

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Blood and Lymphatic System Two of the body’s main fluids are the blood and the lymph. The actions of the heart help circulate the blood through the circulatory system although the lymph does not actually circulate. Even though blood is a fluid it is actually a tissue whose individual cells float suspended in liquid plasma. The blood cells perform many different jobs but important jobs in the body and the mix of cells and chemicals are key indicators of the body’s overall health. The blood components are blood plasma which is a pale yellow liquid and it makes up the largest part of the blood by volume which is about 55%. The plasma itself is about 91% water the rest of it mainly consist of proteins produced by the liver to help maintain the proper levels of water in the bloodstream and to help with clotting. The plasma carries small amounts of nutrients picked up from the digestive tract. It also transports heat as well, keeping the body at a steady overall temperature. We replenish our own blood supply every time we drink a glass of water. Even though plasma is a pale, yellowish liquid, blood is red because it is thronged with red blood cells (erythrocytes). Each red blood cell holds rough 250 million molecules of the protein hemoglobin. Hemoglobin molecules contain iron atoms that bind loosely to molecules of oxygen as blood passes through the oxygen-rich tissues of the lungs. Lacking a nucleus or most other organelles, red blood cells only last about 120 days before dying at a rate of about 2 million per second. The spleen and the liver remove the dead, and ruptured cells from circulation; then our body thriftily recycles many of its own components such as the iron and the amino acids in hemoglobin. Compared with red blood cells/ white blood cells, or leukocytes are few and far between in the blood about 5,000 to 10,000 per cubic millimeter but their

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