Tayana Panova The Color of Blood

There is a misconception that blood is blue when it is in a deoxygenated state inside the body. This is false.

The Prevalence of the Misconception: This is a glimpse into general opinion on blood color. According to 144 answers gathered from the top four most answered questions on about what the color of blood is, these were the results:

The Myth: Blood is blue inside the body where it is deoxygenated. “If you wonder why you’ve never seen blue blood before, someone might tell you that’s because when you bleed, the blood is oxygenated upon contact with the air, and immediately turns red.” – Mentalfloss.com, March,

Research A study was done by Michigan State University students in 2008 on what different age groups thought about the color of blood. The participants were individuals from age 3 to 40+ with at least 2 participants from every age group (6 age groups). The results:

More Research Another recent Michigan State University study testing ages 8-44 The explanation for each answer is also recorded. Almost everybody who holds the blue-blood myth has the same reasoning: lack of oxygen causes blood color to change to blue Who is responsible for spreading this myth?

The Real Color of Blood and Why it is So

The Biology of Blood Blood is made up of erythrocytes or red blood cells: That which makes the red blood cells red is hemoglobin, a protein mostly made up of iron which binds to oxygen.

The Oxygen Bonding Process According to the Franklin Institute, “As blood passes through the lungs, oxygen molecules attach to the hemoglobin. As the blood passes through the body’s tissue, the hemoglobin releases the oxygen to the cells.”

Bright Red/ Dark Red When red blood cells are carrying oxygen, they are oxygenated. At this point, blood is bright red in color. When red blood cells have unloaded their oxygen, they are deoxygenated. At this point, blood is dark red in color.

What The Blood Colors Look Like OxygenatedDeoxygenated

Myth-Busting The common explanations for the “blue blood” belief: 1 – lack of oxygen causes blood to be blue 2 – anatomy books affirm this through their blue and red diagrams 3 – blood is obviously blue because if you look, your veins are blue

1 st Myth – Deoxygenation Causes Blue Blood For blood to be blue at some point, there need to be blue elements in blood to start with. Blood is made up of red blood cells, white blood cells, clear platelets, and clear plasma. There are no blue elements in blood.

Blood in Syringes – the True Color Test When blood is taken with syringes, its true deoxygenated color can be seen because there is no oxygen inside of a syringe. The blood is dark red.

2 nd Myth – Anatomical Textbooks Affirm Blue Blood Diagrams such as this one might lead people to conclude that books are affirming that deoxygenated blood is blue

Another Example: Anatomy books color every body part in multiple colors to help identify certain sections This is often done with the brain as well but that is not to say that the brain is multi-colored in real life

3 rd Myth – Veins are Blue so Blood is Blue Veins are not blue, they just look blue through the skin because of the way that light travels through and reflects off of the layers of tissue Even if veins were blue, neither vein nor skin tissue is crystal clear, therefore we could not judge blood color from that observation either way

Example: The light effect that causes veins to look blue can be replicated with red food coloring looked at through milky water.

Conclusion Inside the body, blood color alternates from dark red to bright red depending on levels of oxygenation but it is never blue. Don’t take information at face value – you would be surprised at how many mistaken beliefs we hold because we do not question them.