Today I wanted to share with you guys the life of a platelet – I really found all this information interesting and thought you guys may also share my interest.
You see our bodies run basically like an engine it has many different moving parts that must work together in order to function. Your blood is basically the engine oil and what it does is carry nutrients and oxygen to all the cells in your body so that they can grow and remain healthy (kind of like looking after a plant it has to be watered etc.) It also takes waste products away from your cells so they can remain nice and clean – on top of that blood can even help you get better when you are sick.
So how does one’s body make blood? Well just like any good recipe it has to have a good mix of ingredients. The ingredients in your blood are;
White blood cells – these help fight infection
Red blood cells – these help carry oxygen through your body
Plasma – this helps carry hormones, nutrients and proteins throughout your body
Platelets – these are cells that have the big job of stopping bleeding
The amazing thing about blood is that the body has the ability to make it all by itself and this process begins in the bone marrow. The bone marrow creates red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Plasma on the other hand (which is mostly water) is created in your intestines from what you eat and drink and then the liver helps supply the important proteins.
All these ingredients make up your blood which is an essential part of your body’s circulatory system then your heart and blood vessels pump all this blood around your body.
Now let’s tune into those platelets.
Platelets are very tiny you basically need a microscope to be able to see them and are less than half the size of your red blood cells. What I found interesting to know is that one drop of blood contains tens of thousands of platelets (wow this puts things into prospective when you think about your platelet count).
Approx. 30% of your platelets are stored in your spleen and the other approx. 70% float around your body. Each platelet only lasts about 7 to 10 days in the blood steam (would be interesting to know how long a platelets life span lasts in an ITP patient’s body) and within those days if it is not used to clot the spleen and liver then destroy it. Approx. 200 billion new platelets enter the blood steam every day to replace those used or destroyed.
Well there you have it some education on platelets and their approx life span. Hope you enjoyed!
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