Breathe in and Breathe Out __Approaching_04

Blood is a mixture of several components: red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, plasma, and other various nutrients and proteins. Each component has a unique task. Red blood cells carry oxygen. An average adult has around 20–30 trillion red blood cells. Wow! Can you even imagine what 20–30 trillion blood cells would look like if they were lined up next to each other?

That’s a lot of blood cells! White blood cells fight off illness. Platelets clot, or stop, active bleeding if the body is injured. Plasma is a liquid that moves the cells, nutrients, and proteins.

The driving force of the cardiovascular system is the heart. The heart has two main jobs. First, it pumps the oxygen-poor blood into the lungs from where it picks up oxygen. Then it pumps the oxygen-rich blood to your body.

You can feel your heart pumping blood if you press your hand over your upper left side of your chest. You can also feel blood moving through the veins in your wrist. You think to yourself, this is actually very interesting. You glance at your friend and discover that he is intently searching to find his pulse. Once he finds it, he looks up at you and grins. He obviously thinks this is neat too.

Next, you look at the diagram on how blood makes it around the body through a series of special tubes called arteries and veins. Arteries take oxygen-rich blood everywhere in your body. Veins bring back the oxygen-poor blood to your heart. Once there, it will pick up oxygen and restart the cycle.

What an incredible journey a single red blood cell has! Imagine how your heart and lungs work together to keep you alive and moving around. Now you breathe in and breathe out in a completely new way. You breathe in and out to capture as much oxygen as you can, thinking of that tiny red blood cell.