Red Blood

Hello Everybody,

Today we are going to explore something that everybody has probably asked.

Question:

Why is blood red?

Blood is made up of many different things.  It might look simple, but everything in blood is very important to your health!  There are four major ingredients to blood: platelets, red blood cells, white blood cells, and plasma. 

If you get a cut, platelets help you stop bleeding.  Red and white blood cells have different jobs.  Red blood cells carry oxygen everywhere in your body. White blood cells fight infections. Plasma carries other stuff like nutrients and proteins everywhere in your body.

The red blood cells are red because they have hemoglobin.  Hemoglobin is a chemical that carries the oxygen in blood around the body.  Sometimes people say that blood is blue in the body when it does not have oxygen.  It is actually still red, but sometimes looks blue through skin.

Thanks, 

Ms. G