Blood Types
Have you ever given blood? Have you ever been asked what type of blood you have? There are four different blood types, and it is very important to know which kind you have for medical reasons and for the benefit of others.
There are four different types of blood; A, B, AB, and O. This is called the ABO blood typing system. All four different types of blood serve the same purpose of transporting nutrients and oxygen throughout the human body. But what makes them different? Blood typing is based on the presence or absence of A and B cell antigens which trigger antibodies. Each kind of blood has it’s own antibody or immunoglobulin, which are proteins produced by the immune system to help stop intruders from invading your body. Therefore,
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as a foreign blood enters your body there is a specific antigen to fight that form of blood. For example, if a person with type A blood got a blood transfusion, and was accidentally pumped with type B blood, the antibodies that were specifically made for the type B blood will fight off the intruding blood. The same goes for type B blood. Nevertheless, O blood is the most unique of the four types of blood. Type O blood has no specific antigens, however has antibodies for both A and B blood cells. Therefore type O blood can give to any blood type, but can only receive type O blood. . Our bodies are able to produce the antibodies because of the antigens that trigger the antibodies. The two similar words can get confusing, however, one way to tell them apart is by breaking the word antigen down. Anti- means, against, while -gen, means, agent that produces. Once the words are broken down, it is easier to remember that the antigen is the one that stimulates or produces the antibody to fight the foreign material. This system has saved many people's lives, but has also killed many babies’ lives as well, due to the RH factor, or the RH classification system. There is another antigen on the surface of red blood cells, other than antigens that determine your blood type.
This second antigen is called the Rh factor, which is named after the rhesus monkey in which this antigen was first discovered. The people who have the Rh factor are Rh positive, and those who do not have the Rh factor, are Rh negative. Blood does not normally have an antibody for the Rh factor. Nonetheless, if someone who is Rh negative is transfused with Rh positive blood antibodies begin to grow against the positive Rh factor. This can help as well as harm humans, especially pregnant women. If a Rh negative woman has a baby who is Rh positive, the first pregnancy will not cause a problem because her body has not yet produced antibodies for the Rh positive antigens. However, if the mother becomes pregnant with another Rh positive baby, the mother's antibodies for the Rh positive antibodies will cause agglutination and hemolysis or, clumping of red blood cells and destruction of red blood cells. If left untreated the baby will develop erythroblastosis fetalis, which can be fatal. This is why it is important for everyone, especially mothers to get a complete blood count.
A complete blood count is a common blood test that’s done for a variety of reasons. Some of those reasons include to review your overall health, to diagnose a medical condition, to monitor a medical condition, and to monitor medical treatment. If the complete blood count test reveals an abnormal increase
or decrease in cell counts, that indicates that you have an underlying medical condition that calls for further evaluation. This can prevent many illnesses that certain blood types are more accustomed to. Blood is very important in the human body. It transports much needed oxygen and nutrients, and using antigens and antibodies helps fight off many bad foreign materials. However, blood can surprisingly be deadly as well to mothers and their unborn children. It is important to get a complete blood count to learn what kind of blood you have to help prevent any forms of fatalities.
In his book, Blood Done Sign My Name, the author Timothy Tyson tells the story of the highly combustible racial atmosphere in the American South before, during, and after the Jim Crow era. Unlike Margaret Mitchell’s account of the glory and grandeur of the Antebellum South, Tyson exposes the reader to the horrific and brutal reality that the black race experienced on a daily basis. Tyson highlights the double standard that existed during this period in history, arguing that the hypocrisy of the “white” southern judicial system allowed the murder of a young black African-American male at the hands of white racists to go unpunished (Tyson 2004, 244).
Wallace Terry has collected a wide range of stories told by twenty black Vietnam veterans. The stories are varied based on each experience; from the horrific to the heart breaking and to the glorified image of Vietnam depicted by Hollywood. Wallace Terry does not insinuate his opinion into any of the stories so that the audience can feel as if they are having a conversation with the Vietnam Veteran himself. Terry introduces the purpose of the book by stating, “ Among the 20 men who portray their war and postwar experiences in this book. I sought a representative cross section of the black combat force.”(p. XV) Although the stories in this book were not told in any specific order, many themes became prominent throughout the novel such as religion, social, and health.
Racism, a plague in our society that has infected our society, and still does today, has been rooted by the premise of Darwinian evolution. Racism existed long before Charles Darwin made his mark in history; however, in the book One Race One Blood, the authors explain how there is a very close relationship between the theory of evolution and what we know today as racism. The authors intent of this book is to realize the effects of a specific ideas that has shaped racism. Mr. Ken Ham describes ideas as being seeds, “…they might seem small; they might seem insignificant; they might even go unnoticed by all expect those who hold them in the moment…” (7). Charles Darwin’s idea (or seeds) of his evolutionary has taken root and made its way into public schools, the government, and even our churches. Although, racism did not originate with Darwin, Ken Ham claims that, “he did more than any other person to popularize it” (22). His evolutionary ideas have fueled racism and this is what racists use to justify their hatred toward those who are different from them (8).
In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, blood gives the boys feelings of power and control through violence. For instance, after the hunters successfully kill a pig, Jack “giggled and flicked them [his hands] while the boys laughed at his reeking palms. Then Jack grabbed Maurice and rubbed the stuff [blood] over his cheeks” (135). Maurice is not a leader on the island and he is entirely comfortable with being a follower and not making decisions for himself. Jack, on the other hand, has more power in island politics and Maurice could arguably be his subordinate; therefore, the smearing of the blood over Maurice’s face is Jack demonstrating his control over him. Another example of the use of blood as a symbol of control is when a lightning storm
An Rh factor is a protein on the surface of red blood cells. Rh incompatibility happens when a mother has Rh-negative blood and her baby has Rh-positive blood. During pregnancy or delivery, blood from the baby can cross into the mother’s bloodstream. If a mother is Rh-negative and the baby is Rh-positive, the mother’s antibodies can destroy the baby 's red blood cells.
When people are being made, they receive genes passed down from multiple generations. Many of these genes can benefit the child being born, or can kill it. Through Meiosis the offspring receive two sets of genes, one from each parent. In human embryos, the child receives 23 chromosomes from each parent, equaling the 46 chromosomes in a regular body cell of a human. Parents can pass down traits for blonde hair, orange hair, brown eyes, blue eyes, and even the height for the offspring. Generations before the offspring can have diseases passed down to the offspring that can harm it. Most of the time evolution chooses against a disease, washing it out of the chromosomes, but in some cases certain diseases are still carried. Hemochromatosis is one of those diseases.
The constant struggle for social reform and the inequality faced by many African Americans shows their willingness to be acknowledged, the start of the Civil Rights Movement commenced with the freedom granted to them by the Reconstruction Amendments. The prospect of knowledge and willingness sprung a powerful flow of African Americans who wanted to be recognized as human beings and as equals to the white population.
Due to the fact that people are genetically predetermined to either have the Rh factor or not, sometimes there is an occurrence where a woman who is Rh⁻ is pregnant with a child who is Rh⁺. Problems can then arise if the blood from the baby enters the mother’s bloodstream; the Rh⁺ blood from the baby causes the mother’s body to create antibodies against it. These antibodies will then attack any Rh⁺ blood cells. This causes no harm to the mother but can create complications with the baby if the antibodies pass to it and destroy some of its blood cells. This is what is referred to as isoimmunization; it only occurs if the baby’s Rh⁺ blood enters the bloodstream unless a woman becomes sensitized to Rh blood when she received an incompatible ...
Alpha thalassemia is a blood disorder that reduces the production of hemoglobin, which is the protein in red blood cells responsible for carrying oxygen throughout the body. Those affected experience a shortage of efficient oxygen-carrying red blood cells, causing anemia, and manifesting in the observable signs of: pale skin, weakness, fatigue, or serious complications when coupled with other illnesses. Thalassemia is a blood disorder passed down through families (since it is inherited siblings may share this disease) in which the body makes an abnormal form of hemoglobin, resulting in excessive destruction of red blood cells and diminishing the affected person’s normal, healthy red blood cells. Damage to the body is caused by either a genetic mutation or a deletion of HBA1 and HBA2 genes. Because each person inherits two alpha-globin alleles from each parent, when both parents are missing at least one alpha-globin allele, the child is at risk of having Hb Bart syndrome, HbH disease, or alpha thalassemia depending on the number of missing working alleles. Involving the genes HBA1 and HBA2, alpha-thalassemia is due to impaired production of either 1, 2, 3, or 4 alpha globin chains, leading to an excess of beta globin chains. There are four copies of the gene instructing the body to make alpha globin; the more functioning genes a person has, the more alpha globin is made, whereas the number of non-working genes determines what type of alpha thalassemia a person has since when one or more of the alpha globin genes is not working properly, less alpha globin is made. There exist different types of alpha thalassemia: having three normal alpha genes results in a silent carrier state; two normal alpha genes results in mic...
In Blood In Blood Out is a drama directed by Taylor Hackford, and starring Damian Chapa (Miklo), Benjamin Bratt (Paco), and Jesse Borrego (Cruz), produced by Hollywood Pictures. The film was based off everyday life in East Los Angeles, from the 1970’s through the 1980’s. Damian Chapa stars as Miklo in the film, a Mexican-American who wanted to be accepted, not by his skin but for the Mexican within him. Benjamin Bratt (Paco) was the older cousin of Miklo, who learned his lesson throughout the movie and changed his ways. Jesse Borrego (Cruz) is the step-brother of Paco who was a talent artist, who ended up turning to drugs because of back problems caused by a rival gang incident.
VI. Some individuals requiring blood are surgical patients; burn victims; accident victims; anemics'; hemophiliacs; seriously ill babies; and persons suffering from leukemia, cancer, kidney disease and liver disease.
Hemolytic Disease of the newborn (HDN) is the most severe and common implication of rhesus D iso-immunisation, which could be a reality for Jane’s 36-week-old fetus (SA Maternal and Neonatal Clinical Network 2010). HDN arises in a rhesus positive fetus of a rhesus negative mother, where the mother produces antibodies that destroy the red blood cells of the fetus as they are recognized are foreign (Antonios. N 2011). This causes the baby to become sick is called erythroblastosis fetalis during pregnancy and known as hemolytic disease of the newborn after birth (Dean. L
I have given blood before and I am aware of the questionnaire and procedures used during the blood donation process.
According to Karen C. Timberlake, “every individual’s blood can be typed as one of four blood groups” (556). The differences in blood is what makes every human body different from the next. Studies have shown that “people have either blood group A, B, AB, or O, with each type occurring at different frequencies in populations around the world” (Ananthaswamy 15). An individual with one type of blood cannot share blood or organs with an individual of a different blood type. Failure to distinguish different blood types can cause reject when a patient receives the wrong type from a donor. Certain methods are used in determining what type of blood a patient has. However, there are certain blood types that can accept any type of blood, and there are also blood types that can be used for any type of patient. There are many different characteristics used for categorizing blood, such as blood types, agglutination, carbohydrates, antigens and antibodies.
Our blood is able to connect all our organs together to create one organism and is able to transport the most vital and important molecules through these blood streams. Hence, blood cells are needed for immune system function and metabolic functions.