How Many Pints Of Blood In The Human Body – Understand Your Body For a Healthy Life

Blood is the red fluid in the human body and other animals which delivers all necessary substances for maintaining life, as well as remove all the waste products. In this article, we will not only help you to study the amount of blood in a human body, but we also give you knowledge in many aspects of the human blood. Understanding all the properties of human blood can contribute to the response to the question: How many pints of blood in the human body.

What is blood? What does it do?

You may hear about blood many times before, and you may already know what is blood and what does it do.We also told you in the introduction a short term of the blood. But for those who do not cognize this red fluid, we can say to you in a more specific way; blood is the red flow which continually moves within your body to transfer all the necessary nutrition to feed your every single cell. The surge also brings all the waste, products of cells’ metabolism outside [1].

How many pints of blood in the human body?

The question is similar to “How much blood is in the human body” or “how many liters of blood in the human body”. The pint or the liter is just the measurement involved in answering the question. The amount of “how much blood is in the human body” varies in different people.

According to many professional medical documents, it is said that a normal person holds averagely 9 to 12 pints of blood. The sex also gives a significant difference. For the female, average volume of a human is 9 to 10,5 pints (4,5 to 5,5 liters), and for the male, it is 10 to 12 pints (5 to 6 liters) [2].

This information might be right with a group of familiar people. For instance, a group of white people who stay in the same location, with the same weight and height, gives the same answer for the question. But another problem appears, do the weight and height affect “how many pints of blood in the human body”, can an Asian with 5ft height have the same as a European 7ft giant? Of course, it is apparently no.

So the average formula for counting how much blood in the human body seems that it can’t be applied in some specific situation. Fortunately, our scientists also create an easier way to count the blood which can be used in most cases. To know how much blood does a human have, objectively, just take the weight and multiply the number with 0,06 and 0,08 because that’s how much the blood makes part of the plain weight.

Because the density of the blood has already been calculated as around 1060 kg/m3, so the weight of the blood after divided to 1.060 is the amount of the blood in liters. The equation is written below:

• V1 = m*0.06/1.060 (liters) as the lower limit
• V2 = m*0.08/1.060 (liters) as the upper limit

In the equation: V is the blood volume in liter, m is the weight in kg. So your blood volume will range from V1 to V2.

For example, a man with 6ft height, weighed 80 kg will have an amount of blood as equivalent between 80*0.06/1.060 and 80*0.08/1.060. The result is 5,66 which is the average blood volume of the man.

Of course, the blood volume is fewer for the female and more for the male, as well as the comparison between child and adult but overall, the range can be calculated precisely and efficiently [3].

What is the function of the blood?

‘What is the function of the blood’ is a very thoughtful question. Blood plays a critical and crucial role in your body. It performs three primary functions. They include the supply of oxygen and nutrients to tissues, immunological function, and the homeostasis function[4].

Supply of oxygen and nutrients to tissues

Every cell within your body wants to metabolize. In other words, the cells are parts of your body; they want to work for you to do activities such as walking, running, breathing and so on. But to work, they need energy.

You can gain power by consuming foods and drinks, but your cells cannot use them as their energy directly. They need oxygen and nutrients like glucose, acid amines, fatty acids, for the metabolic reaction chain to produce their energy. Those needs are supplied by the almost single stream, that’s the blood flow.

Immunological function of the blood

Some blood cells such as white blood cells are capable of engulfing and absorbing strange microorganisms like virus and bacterias. That’s a mighty barrier which protects you from diseases.

Homeostasis function

Every cell has a constant oncotic pressure within them to assure all the reactions inside. The blood by pumping in and thrust out many particles will regulate the homeostasis inside the cell.

What is blood made of?

Have you ever had a wound that makes you bleed? No matter the size and the severity of the injury, the blood comes out. Have you observed the blood after being excreted outside? If yes, you may notice that after a short time, the fluid is separated into two parts, the red part, and the yellow part. The blood is composed of plasma (which appears as the yellow part) and blood cells (which appears as the red part).

Each of the parts has a very crucial role and constitutes differently to the blood volume. By volume, the plasma constitutes about 54,3%, the red blood cells constitute 45%, and white blood cells constitute about 0,7% [4].

What is plasma in the blood?

Plasma is the yellowish colored liquid you can see in a blood tube. It is intravascular fluid, and it is made of almost water and dissolved proteins, glucose, electrolytes, carbon dioxide, oxygen and clotting factors (platelets, fibrin, thrombin, etc.).

95 % of the fluid are water, and other parts take a tiny place in the liquid. Plasma also serves as the reservoir of proteins in human body. It contributes mostly to the homeostasis function of the blood. It plays a vital role in an osmotic effect that prevents the infection and keeps electrolytes in the balanced form [5].

What is the role of plasma in the blood?

Plasma works as a transporter for many essential substances in the body. It performs its roles by transporting them.To answer the question ‘What is the role of plasma in the blood,’ the performances of the blood plasma are coagulation, immunity, albumin solutions and thermal creation [6].

Coagulation

Coagulation is defined as the complicated process of blood clotting. When you are wounded, without the coagulation, the bleeding will continue until there is no blood left. So this is the vital role of the plasma. In the plasma, there are many clotting factors such as proteins and platelets. They will bind to the damaged cells on the edge of the wound and create the matrix to catch all the cells that are coming out.

The process is called clotting. By doing that, the plasma can stop the bleeding and optimize the wound to recover.

Immunity

Your body has an excellent way to protect you from infection. The body produces antibodies and immunoglobulins. They are the factors that bind to the surface of the microorganisms like bacteria and virus to deactivate them selectively. They are very practical and durable.

For example, all of us are vaccinated and immunized with Tetanus, the real reaction of the body is to produce antibodies against the bacteria. Because the antibodies exist, we are immortal to this kind of bacteria. Typically, the antibodies bind to the proteins and move along with the flow of plasma to every place of the body.

The amount of ‘how many pints of blood in the human body’ also has a significant effect on the immunity of your body because as the blood volume increases, the plasma volume increases.

Albumin

This is the most common protein in the plasma. It is also the carrier of many proteins, hormones, and enzymes around the body. It creates the osmotic force of the intravascular fluid and extracellular fluid. By doing so, it maintains the right amount of normal blood volume circulating in the body. It the circulation is working correctly, the vital hormones and enzymes are transported to the right parts of the body, thus optimize the inside activities efficiently.

In some conditions, the albumin solution is used to treat accumulation and edema in patients with CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease) or Liver Function Deficiency.

Thermal creation and thermal regulation

Plasma takes over half of blood volume. The flow of the blood creates and transports heat through any part of the body. Hence, the plasma contributes very much to the thermal creation and thermal transportation.

How much blood plasma is in the human body?

The blood plasma constitutes about 54,3% in the normal blood volume. Along with normal blood volume, the count of the blood plasma is averagely 4,5 to 7 pints. The same problem also exists here that the amount is not exact because it depends on the person. Because you knew the percent that blood plasma took in the average volume of a human, we can still apply the same formula used in calculating the blood volume to calculate precisely the volume of this yellow fluid.

What is the red color of the blood made of?

So, we introduced you about the blood plasma. That is the yellowish colored liquid part of the blood. But every time you bleed, the color you see is almost red. What is that red color made of? Here is the answer.

This part constitutes less than blood plasma in volume (45% compared to 54,3%). But it creates the color of the blood. They are blood cells. All the blood cells are divided into three groups: Red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.

Red blood cells

Read blood cells also called erythrocytes, take the most of the cells in the bloodstream. They are red because they are composed of hemoglobin. Each red blood cell contains four particles of hemoglobin within them.

Because hemoglobin absorbs the blue light waves, so it gives us the red vision. The red blood cells together make the most important function of the blood, that is to deliver the oxygen to the tissues. The oxygen which we inhaled, reacts with the hemoglobin on the surface of the red blood cells, then binds to them.This reaction makes the blood a bright red color, and it is seen in the arterial blood.

After being transported to the tissues, the red blood cells release the oxygen molecules and become deoxygenated blood, which appears with the maroon color, it is normally seen in venous blood.

White blood cells

White blood cells are also called leukocytes. They are cells of the immune system that protect the body against infectious diseases and outside invaders. The number of white blood cells is much fewer than red blood cells, and it plays an immune role. It stays low in normal condition, but if you are exposed to any infectious factors, the number of the white blood cells grow up quickly to fight against them.

Platelets

They are not the cells. Indeed, a bone marrow cell which is assigned to become platelets divides itself into fragments. Those fragments are much tinier compared to red blood cell and white blood cell. They stay in the bloodstream to counter bleedings, to optimize the recovery of the damaged tissues [7].

How many pints of blood can you lose before you die?

The define and the overview picture of the blood we gave you seems very clear. But there is a quite important thing you should know about the blood. You have known very well ‘How many pints of blood in the human body’ and the crucial and vital functions of the blood. But have you wondered how many pints of blood in body you need to keep working correctly? Or what is the minimum amount of blood in human body which flow in the circulatory system keeps you alive?

Bleeding or hemorrhaging is the word which describes the escaping of the blood from the circulatory system. The escaping should occur externally by the wound, but it can also happen internally either through a natural opening such as the mouth, nose, ear or a compartment inside the body such as an intracerebral compartment, stomach, and intestine. A massive decrease in blood volume can cause the death due to exsanguination. This condition is called hypovolemia, which means decreased blood volume.

Typically, a healthy person can endure a loss of 10-15% of total blood volume with no symptoms. A very particular example is in a blood donation, each donor gives their amount of blood as equivalent as 10% of their normal blood volume without any medical difficulties. However, an excessive amount of blood loss can be an emergency situation if there is no intervention and can result in death. The controlling of bleeding is an integral part of the first aid in an accident situation. The monitoring is called hemostasis and it is a very important step in surgery [8].

It is not easy to give an exact number for ‘How many pints of blood can you lose before you die.’ This depends on many factors including ‘How many pints of blood in the human body.’ If you have a larger amount of normal blood volume in your body, you can sustain the condition longer and vice-versa.

You can also apply the previous formula indirectly to calculate the amount of blood loss based on the total blood volume. But it is still quite hard and indistinctive to understand the problem. To study this most comprehensively, you need to know about the symptoms of blood loss first.

Symptoms of blood loss

According to the American College of Surgeons’ advanced trauma life support, the bleeding or hemorrhaging can be broken down into four classes from I to IV with the symptoms of blood loss respectively [9].

Class I

Blood loss up to 15% of total blood volume. There is no change in vital signs, and the patient is still awake.

Class II

Blood loss from 15% up to 30% maximum of total blood volume. The patient often has tachycardia (fast rhythm of the heart), and there is a narrowing difference between the systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The body attempts to compensate by contracting the peripheral vessels. Skin of the patient turns into pale, and the patient may exhibit slight changes in behavior.

Class III

Blood loss from 30% up to 40% maximum of total blood volume. The patient is now under the emergency condition that needs to be transferred directly to the hospital. The blood pressure drops, heart rate increases, the skin is pale and cool when touch. The patient can be observed in a shock situation with the collapsed mentality, capillary refill worsen. The patient needs a blood transfusion to prevent the worsening caused by disturbance inside the body.

Class IV

Blood loss more than 40% of total blood volume. The body reached the limit of the compensation. The patient lost the mentality; the manifestation would be coma or lethargy. Skin is pale and cold. Without any medical intervention and blood transfusion, the patient can die within hours.

With the classification made by American College of Surgeons, associated with the information and calculation of ‘How many pints of blood in the human body’, we hope you understand the limitation of the blood loss and base on the knowledge, you can answer yourself the question ‘how many pints of blood can you lose before you die’. You can know what happens when blood volume is lost from the body by recognizing the symptoms of blood loss.

How many pints of blood in the human body that you can have?

The maximum amount of blood in the human body is also an important aspect that we want you to be clear. Because most of the time, people care only about the lower limit of the body reservoir. Many people usually assume themselves that if they have more blood than others, then that is better for them.

In some situations, that should be right. But what is the maximum blood amount that you should have? And what is the symptoms of excessive blood in your body?

We have searched and reviewed many studies about the blood to get the maximum capacity of our body to reserve the blood. There is not any official information about maximum blood amount a body can hold.

However, there is some preliminary evidence told us that the upper limit of the blood volume using the method given above is quite exact about the maximum capacity. Anyway, the body always regulates the volume to fit your needs. What we should care about is an excessive amount of blood in your body because it signifies for the detrimental manifestation of some disturbances in your body.

In medical nomenclature, the condition which the patient has an excessive amount of blood in the body is called hypervolemia. Hypervolemia is a latin based name which literally means fluid overload. This happens when there is too much fluid in the circulatory system.

In other words, that is when we have too much blood. This condition usually appears in people with CKD phase IV with kidney failure, liver failure or in people with congestive heart failure (CHF). The explanation for this condition stems from mechanisms for sodium handling and water retention regulated by these organs. It may also be caused by an excessive amount intake of sodium from food, infusions, or medications.

Knowing all the symptoms of hypervolemia is as important as symptoms of blood loss. In some specific situation, these signs will help you to assess personally your severity of your symptoms so that you can come to the hospital for an early diagnosis. The symptoms are primarily an accumulation of the fluid in various location in the body. The accumulation leads to an increase in weight, peripheral edema (swelling in arms and lower legs), or fluid in the abdomen.

Eventually, the fluid may come into the pleural space and causes pleural effusion, which demands medical intervention like pleural drainage to prevent further complications.

In more serious condition, the fluid may come to space between alveoli in the lungs, causes pulmonary edema, thus reduces the oxygen that can enter the blood and results in short of breath and can become deadly if there is no intervention. The pulmonary edema is also an emergency situation.

Bottom line

This article does not only answer the question ‘How many pints of blood in the human body’ or ‘How many liters of blood in the human body,’ but it also gives readers many other aspects of the blood. By telling you this information, we hope you understand the importance you the human blood.

By studying this article, you can now calculate yourself your blood volume as well as plasma volume. You can also estimate the blood volume of others by applying the formula. And with the knowledge about symptoms of blood loss, you can now understand the necessity of first aid, and you can yourself assess the condition of the patient in accident condition.

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