Colour of blood?

Question

Is it true that the colour of blood is actually blue inside the body

Answer 1

NO.
Blood is NOT blue it is red, oxygenated blood in the arteries is bright red but deoxygenated blood in the veins is a darker, more purpulish red, and looks blue through your skin.

I can't believe how many people really thopught that it changed on contact with O2 - do you have biology lessons?

Answer 2

Venous blood (blood going TOWARDS the heart) is a dark bluish-red...kind of burgundy purple. This is because the red blood cells have released all its oxygen to the cells in the body and is returning to the heart and lungs for more. Arterial blood (blood going AWAY from the heart) is the bright red you see when you have a cut, because it has been to the lungs and picked up oxygen before being sent back out to the rest of the body.

While the venous blood that you normally see from a cut is red, it is because it automatically picks up oxygen from the air when it gets outside the body...(and hopefully not because you have severed an artery).

Answer 3

Blood itself is a mixture of many components... the liquid part of the blood is called SERUM and is a transparent yellowish colour (you sometimes see serum if you have a wound that "weeps" a clear liquid).

Also in the blood are White Blood Cells which are...er... well white-ish and platelets which as basically transparent or yellowish (and very small!).

And, of course, Red Blood Cells which are red - as there are so many of them, they make blood look red.

The reason red blood cells (and therefore blood) appears red is due to heamoglobin. Haemoglobin is used to transport oxygen around the body. It does this by bonding to oxygen molecules to form oxy-haemoglobin. Oxy-haemoglobin has the bright red appearance we associate with blood (literally blood-red) while haemoglobin which is not bonded to oxygen has a duller purple-ish colour which looks "blue" through our skin.

The reason we see "purple" or "blue" blood vessels on our arms, for example is that the veins carrying de-oxygenated blood (i.e. blood which contains a lot of heamoglobin and not much oxy-haemoglobin) run near the surface of the skin.

In contrast, arteries, which carry oxygenated blood with a high proportion of oxy-haemoglobin (and therefore a more red appearance) are deeper inside us and also have thicker walls so we don't see the red colour.

If we cut ourselves, the blood that comes out is immediately in contact with oxygen in the air and therefore appears red as any haemoglobin present is rapidly converted to oxy-haemoglobin.

So the correct answer is that the blood near the surface of our bodies has a generally more "blue" colouration while the blood deeper inside us is more red.

Answer 4

Well no.
Even the un-oxygenated blood is red. Very dark red, but red. The blue veins you see is red blood but the color is filtered out by your skin the dark line appears blue.

Nice to see all these bogus answers. Always a good laugh.

Answer 5

Thank heavens for Kate l! I was getting seriously concerned about the number of people that believe their blood to be blue! Kate is correct - give her the 10 points and stop this nonsense.

Answer 6

Oxygenised haemoglobin makes the blood appear red

Answer 7

not exactly bluish...its just that oxygenated and de oxygenated blood differ in color,its BLUE according to medical academia terminology ,ibut visibly its all an illusion from the veins!,ts better and easier to depict oxygenated blood from de oxygenated blood by color coding it like this.Its true that oxygenated blood is deep crimson red due to abundance of the oxy haemoglobin pigment.

Answer 8

yes blood inside, turns red soon as hits the air (oxygen)

Answer 9

no, the color of blood is red due to red blood cells, the blue veins you see under the skin appear blue due to the lack of rbc's(red blood cells) which carry oxygen , but that blood is also red.

Answer 10

Yes, It turns red upon contact with the air