Why is our blood red and our veins blue in color?, and, why do we turn blue when losing oxygen?

Question

next question, why not other colors like pale white?

Answer 1

Deoxygenated blood looks blue. When losing oxygen, the blood in your face looks blue. The blood that has been oxygenated (in your arteries) is red, and the deoxygenated blood in your veins is blue

Answer 2

Human blood is red, ranging from bright red when oxygenated to dark red when not. It owes its colour to hemoglobin, a protein compound containing iron, to which oxygen binds.

Blood is never blue, but veins appear blue because light is diffused by skin. The blood inside is dark red and exhibits poor light reflection.
From a physiological perspective, veins and arteries appear similar when skin is removed and are seen directly.

There exists a popular misconception that deoxygenated blood is blue and that blood only becomes red when it comes into contact with oxygen.

I hope this should be sufficient to answer your second question too.

Answer 3

Blood is red! Period!! It is a bright shade of red when oxygenated. It is dark red when de-oxygenated. Veins are not blue! Witness? Look at the veins of red blooded animals such as cattle, sheep, pigs, etc. They are a whitish, grayish color. Human veins are similarly colorless. For light skinned people, veins near the surface only APPEAR blue. It has to do with the dispersal/reflection of light. In the shallow depth between the vein and skin surface more red light is dispersed than in the tissue surrounding the vein. Our brains checks this dispersal pattern against mental records and interprets the vein as being blue. To check this out, take a piece of solid white paper and cut a slit in it the same size as one of the near surface veins in your arm or hand. Observe the vein - miracle of miracles - it's no longer blue. Remove the paper and Presto-Chango it's blue again. The effect is more noticeable in sunlight. When we become cyanotic our vessels dilate therefore there is more blood near the surface. This is particularly noticeable in areas that have high capillary count such as lips and finger tips.

Answer 4

In humans and other hemoglobin-using creatures, oxygenated blood is bright red. This is due to oxygenated iron-containing hemoglobin found in the red blood cells. Deoxygenated blood is a darker shade of red, which can be seen during blood donation and when venous blood samples are taken.

The blood of most molluscs, and some arthropods such as horseshoe crabs, is blue. This is a result of its high content of copper-based hemocyanin instead of the iron-based hemoglobin found, for example, in mammals. While mammalian blood is never blue, there is a rare condition (sulfhemoglobinemia) that results in green blood. Skinks in the genus Prasinohaema have green blood due to a buildup of the waste product biliverdin.

Answer 5

Our blood is red when it obtains oxygen that binds with hemoglobin. Veins are on the surface blood vessels that have deposited their oxygen to the lungs, and when hemoglobin is no longer binded with oxygen it turns blue.

When we lose oxygen, there is no oxygen, taking away the normal red color (of blood rising to the surface of the skin) and the blood is still rising to the skin, but the hemoglobin is no longer bound to oxygen.

Other question: Because that's how it works. You turn pale white when you become incredibly cold, this is because all the blood drop away from the surface of the skin in order to keep your blood warm. When you lose a lot of blood, it drains from your face, causing it to be pale white.

These are how things are.

Answer 6

The compound in red blood cells that carries oxygen to the tissues is haemoglobin; a very complex protein that has an affinity for free oxygen, and binds it to the molecule. In the capilliaries, the haemoglobin gives up its oxygen, and returns through the veins in irts de-oxygenated state. When haemoglobin binds with oxygen, it turns bright red, which gives oxygentated blood its bright red colour. When haemglobin loses its oxygen, it loses some of its red colour. and veinous blood seems bluish by comparison.

edit: Maxeemm A beat me to it, and I couldn't remember the name of haemocyanin off the top of nmy head.

Answer 7

The blood in your veins doesnt hav oxygen in it yet, while the blood in your arteries has been through the lungs has oxygen in it this also acounts for turing blu form lack of oxygen

Answer 8

our blood is red because of its components... there are red blood cells that makes the color red... the veins carry blood that are deoxygenated. it means that the blood in the veins carry carbon dioxide and in turn this is deposited back into the lungs and so the blood becomes oxygenated again and runs through our arteries.

Answer 9

veins show their colors dominating when red is lacking. Hb is mixed with oxygen and shows red. If oxygen lacks, vein color is dominating....

Answer 10

blood is actually blue thats why are veins look blue
when is mixes with oxygen it turns it red
so when someone doesn't have enough oxygen they turn blue