We live busy lives, running here, driving there and trying to avoid the traffic, in order to arrive on time, to wherever the heck it is we’re going. But we have it easy compared to blood cells who do the same thing hundreds of times a day. All the while, traversing the 100 thousand miles of blood vessels that reside in the average adult. Hustling relentlessly to supply oxygen to all parts of the body and then carting off the carbon dioxide waste at the same breakneck speed. Fighting infection when and where it occurs and plugging the Dyke like the little Dutch Boy when a puncture appears in the skin. All this with no time off. Whew, makes me tired just thinking about it.
Like the opposing sides in the Russian Revolution there are two types of blood cells, Red and White. And with five different white blood cells, it makes them as hard to follow as the characters in a Russian Novel, not to mention platelets and plasma. The red blood cells are a little less than half the cells in our blood while the white blood cells and platelets take up about 1 percent with the rest being plasma.
The red blood cells are the truck drivers of the circulatory system. Their cargo is oxygen and they are packed to the gills with the stuff, so much so that they long ago jettisoned their nucleus in order to carry more oxygen. They are made up of hemoglobin the iron rich force which binds itself to gasses like oxygen and carbon dioxide (this is why you don’t want iron poor blood) in order for them to be transported to where they’re needed.
They pick up oxygen (turning the blood red) from the lungs and on the flip flop, they carry away carbon dioxide, before repeating the whole process again. They resemble Life Savers Gummies (only much smaller and with the hole plugged up) and are produced in the bone marrow. They last a few months before being replaced by new ones, appearing at the rate of several million a second, which seems like a lot but then we have trillions of them. So basically we’re just keeping things Status Quo.
Plasma, which makes up more than half of the blood, is the highway the blood cells travel. Mostly made up of water with a pinch of salt and a smattering of other ingredients, Plasma is the only substitute for whole blood and can be used in places (like battlefields) where speed is of the essence and conditions are not ideal.
The white blood cells and the platelets (also coming from your bone marrow) are the first responders. Flowing around the body ever vigilant for any breach or uninvited guest. When the Bat Signal appears they rush to the source and while the platelets get busy repairing any rupture in the skin, the white blood cells immediately begin battling the intruders. These foreign agents are usually germs, viruses, and bacteria (oh my!) which when detected, are set upon by the white blood cells. The white blood cells are as tenacious as a pit bull and will continue to fight their nemesis until they are vanquished. The five different types of white blood cells fight in different ways so that all invaders, including cancer, are engaged.
Now with a small infection and a healthy immune system the white blood cells will triumph. However a weakened immune system, is a weakened immune system and may require backup in the form of drugs. The test which counts the number of white blood cells in the blood is a good indicator of how things stand health wise. A high count indicates they’re there for a reason, and in turn can explain why the patient doesn’t feel so well. Thus allowing the good Doctor to suss out what’s wrong. And we all feel better about that.