Purple blood is distinct from red blood. For one thing, red blood fills arteries, and purple blood fills veins. Both these types of blood are circulating around in your body right now. We will discuss this, but we need to pick a starting place, and this is your heart.
Starting with your heart.
Let’s think about a common example, your automobile’s air conditioner. Let’s assume it’s in “circulation” mode. This is where it is closed to outside air and simply re-circulates air in the car’s cabin.
It’s a hot day, and there’s a warm air in the car’s cabin as the outside heat radiates in. The air conditioner’s fan pulls this warm air into the unit, processes it into cooler air, then blows it back out. The overall effect of this is converting the otherwise hot cabin air into cooler air. This air circulation goes on continuously to keep the cabin cool.
Although it’s a lot more complicated, this is what your heart does. It moves blood through your circulatory system, keeping it full of oxygen (and other nutrients) to meet your body’s needs. So, instead of turning warm air into cool air, your heart turns used blood into fresh blood.
Now, we’re going to go through this in more detail and see what happens.
Let’s ride along with “Hemo” the lonesome corpuscle:
Hemo is a red blood cell, along with billions of others, his (or her) job is delivering nutrients and other goodies like oxygen to your body’s parts. He also picks up waste in exchange and takes it back to your heart.
Now when Hemo returns to your heart, he’s got to get refurbished. So he is sent to your lungs for renewal. After getting oxygenated, he is forwarded to your heart for another delivery job.
He never knows where he’s going to go, so each round trip is a new adventure.
Human Heart Illustrated:
Hemo’s starting point is your Left Ventricle:
Your left ventricle is filled with fresh oxygenated blood from your lungs via the pulmonary veins. When the left ventricle is full, it contracts, forcing (pumping) fresh blood into your aorta for distribution throughout your body.
(Note: both the left and right ventricles contract simultaneously.)
Arteries branch off from the aorta to serve fresh blood to all our body’s parts. This is oxygenated blood and is, therefore, bright red.
All the little Hemos will eventually encounter a capillary.
Capillaries are where red blood cells deliver the goods and pick up the trash. Capillaries are embedded in your body’s tissues, and through their very thin walls, “shake hands” with your tissues, and make trades.
One of these very important trades is oxygen for carbon dioxide. This is respiration at the cellular level. Cells “inhale” oxygen and “exhale CO2.
So, three-quarters of the way through the capillary, Hemo traded his oxygen for carbon dioxide, turned purple, and entered the venous system to return home to the right ventricle.
Yes, there are stops along the way to do more work, but Hemo is constantly moving toward the right ventricle and is prevented from going backward by pressure from behind and one-way valves inside the veins.
Venous blood is purple, and arterial blood is bright red. Venous blood has little or no detectible pulse. It flows differently than arterial blood, which is pumped forward.
Blood in veins flows smoothly and is helped along with muscle contractions.
Venous blood can “pool” and form clots during long periods of sitting or lying motionless in bed. This is why you move around a lot during your sleep. And it’s also why you’re advised to move around every so often.
Purple Blood finale.
Purple blood will eventually make it home to your right ventricle. This is used blood that needs to be renewed, and here’s where your lungs come in. Your right ventricle pumps venous blood to your lungs, where it is re-oxygenated (via respiration).
You breathe in oxygen and breathe out CO2.
The re-oxygenated blood from your lungs is now fresh and ready to go. This fresh blood (Hemo with a smiley face) is pumped to your left ventricle, and the cycle starts all over.
Over-simplified.
Now, the circulation of blood and the duties performed by the blood are very complex, and it’s not just about oxygen. Countless nutrients and other things are delivered and picked up by your blood and distributed to various tissues and organs.
This post was intended to make this picture as simple as possible and help you appreciate the fantastic miracle going on inside of you all the time – no attention required.
It’s all on autopilot.
OMY1
Learn more about blood circulation here.
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