Top 10 facts about blood

It would take 1,200,000 mosquitoes, each sucking once, to totally drain a human of blood

Know Your Numbers Week begins today, an annual campaign by Blood Pressure UK to raise awareness of the risks of high blood pressure.

 

1. The word “blood” occurs at least once in every play by Shakespeare.

2. Spiders, lobsters and snails have blue blood owing to the presence of haemocyanin which contains copper.

3. Blood makes up about eight per cent of your bodyweight.

4. A newborn baby has about one cup of blood in their body. An adult has about 10 pints.

5. Research has shown that mosquitoes prefer blood type O.

6. It would take 1,200,000 mosquitoes, each sucking once, to totally drain a human of blood.

7. An adult human has about 100,000 miles of blood vessels.

8. Our blood contains about 0.2 milligrams of gold.

9. In 1997, Saddam Hussein commissioned a copy of the Quran to be written in his own blood. Since his overthrow, no one knows what to do with it because destroying a holy book is a sin.

10. The amount of blood in a pregnant woman’s system will have increased by 50 per cent by the 20th week of pregnancy.