It’s the Stone Age Diet for Count Dracula when your blood clots. He can’t suck anything off your neck and he’ll fly low all the way back to the castle. That is, if he can fly at all.
Blood tastes a bit salty, and an average adult has around 10.6 pints of it, before a successful vampire attack. Blood is composed of red cells, white cells, and plasma. Plasma is almost entirely made up of water (95%), and the rest is made up of salts and other dissolved substances.
What is a clot
When you get cut, literally, with a knife or any sharp object that is, blood vessels break up and blood flows out. These blood vessels could either be an artery or a vein. If it’s an artery that’s cut, blood flows out stronger and faster as the pressure comes directly from the heart. If it’s a vein, blood spills out slower.
Blood clotting is our body’s way of stopping blood loss. You notice that in a minor cut there’s something like a knot that is formed around it. The blood is exposed to the air so it thickens and dries up. This serves a double purpose: the knot traps blood cells from leaking out and it also prevents other particles from blending into your bloodstream.
This process is called coagulation. The blood clot is made up of platelets wound up with a knot of fibrin. If blood clots inside your body it’s another story and one that seriously needs a doctor’s serious attention.
Chemical process of clotting
When you are cut, your damaged blood vessels secret an enzyme called thrombokinase. This act on prothrombin, a protein found in the blood stream, and turns it into thrombin. All this cannot occur without calcium ions. Thrombin makes a mesh around the cut that is made entirely of insoluble fibrin. There are also traces of minerals and vitamins around the wound, especially vitamin K.
Clots build walls against foreign invaders
Foreign invaders such as bacteria cannot enter your bloodstream because of clots. At the outset they are attacked by while blood cells which act as your blood police. The white blood cells shoot them with anti bodies. When they’re neutralized, white blood cells eat them up.
How your body erases the clot
Your blood has plasma that blends with fibrin molecules in a clot. When your cut heals up, the regular cells release a tissue activator that connects them with the clot. The normal cells convert this tissue activator called plasminogen into plasmin. When the wound is on the healing stage, plasmin will eat up fibrin and the clot gets erased.
But a clot could harm you if it blocks the blood flow in your vein or artery. This blockage is called thrombus. In case of a brain surgery, a thrombus could lead to stroke. If thrombus blocks an artery it could lead to cardiac arrest. Thrombus could occur where there’s a blood clot. And many times the results could either be cancerous or downright fatal.
A clot is a reminder that your body’s natural defense is working well.
Further Readings: