Gave blood today and apart from a slight dizzy feeling, I got a karma boost and a wee bit righteous so GIVE BLOOD everybody!

About 7% of your overall body weight comes from our blood – approximately ten pints of blood in every average adult. So when I donate a pint of blood, I have given away roughly 10% of my overall blood supply. But that single pint of blood could save 3 lives. So a good investment.

Blood circulating in your body is composed of about 55% plasma, 40% red blood cells, 4% platelets, and 1% white blood cells. It also contains metal including iron, chromium, manganese, zinc, lead, and copper. It even has small amounts of gold. About 0.2 milligrams of gold that is mostly found in the blood. Harvesting humans for gold and other precious metals – there is a sci-fi movie there.

Another interesting fact I got while draining is = large animals have slower heart rates than smaller animals i.e. the blood in their body takes longer to circulate. So a blue whale’s heart only beats 5 times per minute while humans beat closer to 75 per minute.

NHS Scotland have a groovy graphic showing the current health of our blood banks – https://www.scotblood.co.uk/about-blood/current-blood-stock-levels/ – looks like we are in some serious need of AB- and also O+ and O-