What Makes Up Healthy Blood?

The liquid component of your blood is called Plasma and has a pH around 7.4. Human blood consists of a liquid (plasma) and a number of cellular and cell fragment components. The blood’s volume is 60 % Plasma followed by 40% cells and fragments. Four of the most important components of our blood are red cells, white cells, platelets, and plasma.

Red blood cells (erythrocytes) are flattened, concave cells about 7 µm in diameter. Red blood cells are the color red because they contain a protein chemical called hemoglobin which is bright red in color. Hemoglobin contains iron and is an excellent vehicle for transporting oxygen and carbon dioxide.Mature erythrocytes are small and lack a nucleus. There are 4 to 6 million of them per cubic millimeter of blood, and have 200 million hemoglobin molecules per cell. About 1/3 of all the cells in the body is a red blood cell (around 25 trillion in the body). Production of Red blood cells is manufactured in red marrow of long bones, ribs, skull, and vertebrae. Since the life-span of an erythrocyte is only 120 days, the body is constantly making new ones and destroying the old ones in the liver and spleen. The body reuses the iron from hemoglobin in the red marrow.

White cells, (leukocytes) exist in variable numbers and are larger than red blood cells. Leukocytes normally only make up about 1% of the blood’s volume. Leukocytes are found not only in the blood, but also in the spleen, liver, and lymph glands. Most are produced in the bone marrow from the same kind of stem cells that produce red blood cells. Others are produced in the thymus gland. Their main function involves the body’s cellular immune response. There are five major types of white blood cells and they include neutrophils, lymphocytes, eosinophils, basophils, and monocytes. They are the essential components of the complex immune system. They seek out, identify, and bind to alien protein on bacteria, fungi and viruses so that they can be removed. T-cells attack cells containing viruses. B-cells produce antibodies. When red cells die, they are removed from the blood and their components are recycled in the spleen. Most individual white cells last 18-36 hours before they also are removed, though some types can live as long as a year.

Platelets are irregularly-shaped blood cells that are produced in the bone marrow and contain cytoplasmic granules. Their main health function is to control bleeding and they are essential to normal blood clotting (coagulation). Platelets circulate for about 10 days before being removed by the liver and spleen. The average person has 150,000 to 300,000 platelets in each milliliter of blood. Platelets stick and adhere to tears in blood vessels as well as release clotting factors. Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, also known as I.T.P., is a condition of having a low platelet count (thrombocytopenia) of no known cause. A hemophiliac's blood cannot clot since they have a hereditary or genetic disorder that impairs the body’s ability to control clotting. Providing correct proteins (clotting factors) has been a common method of treating hemophiliacs.

Another condition that is often revealed in these tests is one in which the activity of red blood cells is compromised because of infection, bacterial or viral. In some cases, the red blood cells are misshapen or debilitated by parasitic invasion.

In the photographs, the "rouleau" effect shows that the red blood cells are clumped together and stacked like coins. Rouleau affects proper oxygenation because the red blood cells do not circulate well enough to deliver oxygen where it is needed.

The condition also favors the growth of unhealthy organisms that can survive in a milieu that is less oxygen rich. Fungi, bacteria, and viruses require less oxygen than healthy tissue.

In the case of rouleau, since oxygenation is really critical to well being, the right diet and herbs may alleviate one of the underlying factors that contributes to cancer. However, enzymes, avoidance of the wrong foods, and protocols that address the specific issues of the patient would be expected to be more effective than more random efforts to ward off ill health. 

For instance, one may or may not be iron deficient, but one may have room for improvement in diet and digestion as well as perhaps liver and immune function. Detoxification and decongestion can also be helpful.

Typically, a detoxifying herb will also be decongesting and sometimes also somewhat anti-parasitic, but not all herbal alkaloids are the same and not all formulae have the same actions. Therefore consultation with a practitioner who is knowledgeable in the areas that are pertinent is practical and, more importantly, often wise! see 825 here

If the real problem is infection—and devitalization or cancer are secondary to infection—it is important to address the infection so that the red blood cells can "get back to their primary task," which, of course, is to deliver oxygen to the tissues.

The idea that cancer is a disease of degeneration has had its fashionable phases and its days of rejection. The issue of whether an abnormal condition could perpetuate itself in a healthy internal environment, what is called "biological terrain" in the literature, is also debated but not resolved.