Do all humans have the same number of veins and arteries? If so, how does the body know how many and where to make these veins and arteries?
In: Biology
As others have said: generally large veins are consistent among people and small veins differ and the former is part of your DNA.
What I haven’t seen mentioned is two interesting things:
1. Sometimes there are surprisingly major changes that follow in family lines – normally we’d class these as genetic defects but sometimes they lead to totally functional people with weird quirks. There’s a lot of redundancy in the system so it can handle even major modifications.
2. Related to the above, things like major injuries, varicose veins or surgery can lead to your body restructuring your veins. My father, for example, had several major blood clots and had his entire Greater Vein of Saph removed, so several of his other leg veins have changed significantly to compensate for its loss.
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