What affects how dark blood is?
In: Biology
How much oxygen it contains.
It’s a common misconception that oxygen-lacking blood is blue and that oxygen-rich blood is red. This mostly comes from diagrams showing deoxygenated blood as blue.
In reality, when red blood cells pick up oxygen, it goes a bright-red colour and when it loses it, it goes back to being a darker red.
Oxygen saturation.
When blood leaves the lungs it is fresh, and has lots of oxygen to deliver around the body. The oxygen is combined with hemoglobin making the blood bright red.
After the blood has delivered the oxygen, it picks up carbon dioxide. This turns blood a darker color.
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