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What’s Considered Healthy Blood in Western Medicine?

If your body is an engine, then blood would be your fuel. Those little cells keep your motor running by carrying oxygen and nutrients to your organs, removing waste, and fighting infections. But how do you know if you’re running high octane? Western science tells us healthy blood is a matter of numbers and size.

“Western medicine tends to break it down into numbers and scientific ways of examining things under the microscope,” says 10,000 Victories student Kedar Che Prasad. Prasad, a board-certified pathologist, would know. He’s been a doctor at Marin General Hospital for the past seven years. Prasad earned his degree at University of California, San Francisco, where he also took up a residency in pathology. As a pathologist, Prasad spends a good deal of time looking down a microscope at tissue samples and blood smears. “Blood is a good indicator of what’s going on in your body,” Prasad says. “Although sometimes you can’t get exactly what the diagnosis is, it really helps guide you in the right direction.”

Understand Your Blood

A man who weighs about 150 pounds walks around with roughly a gallon and a half of blood circulating through his body via arteries, veins, and capillaries. It’s made up of three parts: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets which are suspended in plasma. (Plasma is mostly water, but it also carries proteins, vitamins, ions, hormones, and more.) Red blood cells (or erythrocytes) contain the protein hemoglobin which in turn contains iron. The iron is what the oxygen binds to, allowing oxygen to travel in the bloodstream, fueling the rest of your body’s cells and organs. When the blood cells move through the lungs, they pick up oxygen—the oxidation of the iron is what gives blood its red color. Red blood cells also contain nutrients from the food that you eat and digest. As red blood cells continue their cruise through blood vessels, they pass off the oxygen and nutrients to organs while at the same time gather up carbon dioxide and other waste gas. The heart then pumps these cells back to the lungs so that the waste gas can be exhaled, and more oxygen can be picked up.

White blood cells (or leukocytes) fight invading bacteria, germs, and viruses. They create antibodies, and in roving gangs (lymphocytes, nuetrophils, and others) track down and kill foreign or cancerous cells and infections.

To help your blood vessels when they spring a leak, cell fragments called platelets (or thrombocytes), help to clot blood in broken areas. The oval-shaped platelets pile up on one another and create a plug. Ever have a scab form on a cut? Thank platelets. You would lose a lot of blood without them. Don’t worry about running out of these blood cells and platelets; your bone marrow is constantly making more.

Numbers Matter

When a patient arrives at Marin General complaining of this symptom or that, a doctor will run what’s called a complete blood count test through a highly specialized machine. Red and white blood cells and platelets are tabulated, and the results combined with the symptom report can be very telling.

In an extreme case, these numbers can mean the difference between a common cold and early signs of cancer. For example, too many white blood cells can be a sign of leukemia. Anemia can be discovered by a patient having too few red blood cells and complaining of being tried and out of breath (as there aren’t enough red blood cells to carry oxygen and remove carbon dioxide from the organs). On the other hand, too many red blood cells can make the blood move slower and allow blood clots to form. A dislodged blood clot could then travel to the heart and cause a heart attack, or to the brain and cause a stroke.

Shape Matters

After a patient’s complete blood count test is finished, a blood smear is sent to Prasad for observation. What Prasad is looking for are odd-shaped blood cells that may signal just what the infection or inflammation means. “They call the pathologist the ‘doctor’s doctor,’” Prasad says. “The doctors come to you to put together what’s going on.”

Size Matters

Size can be an indicator. For example, large blood cells can mean a patient is lacking vitamins like B12 or folate, and small blood cells can point to an inadequate amount of iron in the hemoglobin. Shape is also another tell. For instance, Red blood cells are disc-shaped, but if they contain abnormal hemoglobin, they can turn into a sickle shape—a result of sickle cell disease. When these sickle cells latch on together they can block blood flow and prove painful and even fatal.

With the combination of tests results and symptom report, the doctors are much closer to a
diagnosis.

The hope is that your body’s check-engine light never flashes, but when it does, you can be
sure that Prasad and his team are ready to investigate.

About the Author:

Rory Williams

 

 

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