1. Blood accounts for about eight per cent of our body weight.
2. The average adult body has 60,000 miles of blood vessels running throughout it.
3. Our blood plasma consists of red cells, white cells and blood platelets. The platelets cause blood to clot and stop bleeding.
4. Red blood cells carry oxygen, white blood cells fight bacteria, viruses and other disease.
5. Blood is filtered by our kidneys which purify a staggering 400 gallons of blood a day.
6. The average volume of blood in an adult male is 11 pints; an adult female has about nine pints.
7. Blood pressure is measured in millimetres of mercury. The two figures are systolic and diastolic pressure: the pressure as your heart pushes blood out and the resting pressure between heart beats.
8. A giraffe’s figures are around 280/180 compared with a human’s 120/80.
9. It takes between 20 seconds and a minute for a drop of blood to travel from the heart, through your body and back to the heart again.
10. Horseshoe crabs have blue blood which has great medical use to identify bacteria in humans.