How quickly does a blood cell circulate?
29 April 2012
Question
Answer
Diana - I think the answer is going to be about a minute for most people. You have about 5 litres of blood in your body (at least most people do) and the average heart pumps about 70 ml of blood out with each beat. The next bit is going to depend on your resting heart rate. I think most people have an average resting heart rate of about 70 beats a minute (somewhere around there). So, if you multiply the amount of blood that the heart can pump by the number of beats in a minute, you actually get about 4.9 litres of blood, which is almost your whole body's worth of blood. So, in a minute, you will pump the entire blood volume around your body.
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Blood circulation times
It is about a quarter of that (10 to 15 sec) depending on clinical conditions.
See:
Tarr L, Oppenheimer BS, Sager RV. The circulation time in various clinical conditions determined by the use of sodium dehydrocholate. American Heart Journal, 8(6): 766-786.
Says from arm to mouth.
Says from arm to mouth. Injected in the arm and taste response when reaching the tongue unless my reading skills / understanding are poor.
question
does it take a minute for your blood to circulate through your whole body?
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