The heart pumps huge amounts of blood.
Your heart is an amazingly hard-working organ. In five minutes it runs through the circulatory system five liters of blood, per hour 300 litres, making up to 4200 strokes. For the year, it pumps a volume of blood sufficient to fill an Olympic swimming pool is 2.5 million liters. For this year the heart has to perform 38.5 million cuts.
Scientists figured out how to do without blood
What happens when the heart stops? Since time immemorial, cardiac arrest is identified with the death of a person. However, scientists have developed a method of saving people whose hearts have stopped working, putting them into suspended animation. This new technology involves the lack of people brain and heart activity and involves replacement of patient’s blood with saline.
This technique blurs the line between life and death. In its implementation the patient’s body is cooled to 10-15 °C. Because at this temperature the metabolism stops, the value of the blood as a carrier of oxygen to the cells is lost. As a result, the blood can be replaced with a saltwater solution.
We still don’t know why the blood is divided into groups
For a hundred years, one of the most important mysteries of our circulatory system remains without solution. We never found out why we are different blood groups. However, the fact that groups do exist, no doubt — the groups are set up by special molecules on the surface of blood cells.
Using these molecules, the enzymes recognize the red blood cells. Therefore, when blood transfusion, it is important to consider group compatibility. If this requirement is not met, the new blood will be rejected by the body.
But why the blood is divided into types? Wouldn’t it be easier to have one universal group? No one knows the answers to these questions.
Synthetic and pig heart
Xenotransplantation (transplanting tissues from animals to humans) traces its history back to 1682, when Dutch surgeon job van Jansson Meekeren (Job Janszoon van Meekeren) reported on how he was able to “fix” the skull of the Russian soldier using the piece of dog bone. In our days researchers are studying people to transplant pig hearts. Not less intensive studies are conducted in the field of tissue engineering, which aims to find opportunities for growing hearts from scratch outside of the human body.
The use of human blood as a medicine
Enthusiasts claim that human blood was the best remedy in the treatment of many ailments from headaches to indigestion. Adherents of this approach who call themselves sanguinarian, it is recommended to drink more fresh blood.
The official medicine does not recognize human blood no medicinal properties. Apparently, sanguinarians feel better as a result of the placebo effect.
