Why does blood carry hormones

It gets your bones and muscles to grow. Many proteins in plasma are really important to your body, like the clotting factors that help you stop bleeding if you get a cut or a scrape. Nutrients, hormones, proteins, and waste are dissolved in the plasma — kind of like the cocoa mix that dissolves in a cup of hot water. What are the marshmallows? The blood cells — they float in the plasma.

There are eight blood types, described using the letters A, B, and O. Those letters stand for certain proteins found on the red blood cells. Not everyone has the same proteins. If your blood is positive, you have this protein.

Either way is totally fine. Blood types are important if a person ever wants to donate blood or needs a blood transfusion. Getting blood of the wrong type can make a person sick. Healthy blood also protects you from germs and other invaders.

Now that you know how important blood is, what can you do? Note: All information on KidsHealth is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor. All rights reserved. Find a Doctor. About Us. Community Programs. The white blood cell count the number of cells in a given amount of blood in someone with an infection often is higher than usual because more WBCs are being made or are entering the bloodstream to battle the infection.

Platelets: Platelets also called thrombocytes, say: THROM-buh-sytes are tiny oval-shaped cells that help in the clotting process.

When a blood vessel breaks, platelets gather in the area and help seal off the leak. Platelets work with proteins called clotting factors to control bleeding inside our bodies and on our skin.

Platelets survive only about 9 days in the bloodstream and are constantly being replaced by new platelets made by the bone marrow. With each heartbeat, the heart pumps blood throughout our bodies, carrying oxygen to every cell. After delivering the oxygen, the blood returns to the heart. The heart then sends the blood to the lungs to pick up more oxygen. This cycle repeats over and over again.

The circulatory system is made up of blood vessels that carry blood away from and toward the heart. As the heart beats, you can feel blood traveling through the body at pulse points — like the neck and the wrist — where large, blood-filled arteries run close to the surface of the skin.

Sometimes medicine can be given to help a person make more blood cells. The hypothalamus receives nervous signals, processes them, and secretes hormones. These hormones enter the hypophyseal portal system, a network of capillaries that connect the hypothalamus to the pituitary. Capillaries from the superior hypophyseal artery surround the hypophysis and collect hypothalamic hormones that are carried to the anterior lobe of the pituitary via the portal system, where they stimulate or inhibit the release of pituitary hormones.

Axons from the hypothalamus reach into the posterior pituitary where they release two hormones, oxytocin OXT and antidiuretic hormone ADH or vasopressin , for storage and later release. The hormones generated by the hypothalamus and the pituitary control other endocrine glands and all major internal functions. Hormones sent from the hypothalamus to the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland function as signals. They stimulate or inhibit the release of anterior pituitary hormones, which regulate endocrine glands and control a range of body functions.

Human growth hormone hGH travels to skeletal muscles, bones, and the liver to promote overall growth and development. Thyroid-stimulating hormone TSH and adrenocorticotropic hormone ACTH target the thyroid and adrenal glands, two primary endocrine glands that regulate metabolism for temperature regulation, growth, and stress resistance.

Follicle-stimulating hormone FSH and luteinizing hormone LH stimulate sex cell production and reproductive processes in the gonads, and prolactin PRL induces milk production in mammary glands.

Most hormones secreted by the hypothalamus travel to the anterior lobe of the pituitary, where they stimulate or inhibit the release of other hormones. There are two major classes of hormones 1. Proteins, Peptides, and modified amino acids 2. In general, steroids are sex hormones related to sexual maturation and fertility. Steroids are made from cholesterol by placenta by our adrenal gland or gonads testes or ovaries.

Peptides regulate functions such as sleep and sugar concentration. They are made from long strings of amino acids, so sometimes they are referred to as "protein" hormones. Growth hormone, for example, helps us burn fat and build up muscles.

Another peptide hormone, insulin, starts the process to convert sugar into cellular energy. Hormones so perfectly and efficiently manage homeostasis due to negative feedback cycles. Our goal is to keep the concentration of a certain chemical, such as testosterone, at a constant level for a certain period of time, the way that a thermostat works.

Using negative feedback, a change in conditions causes a response that returns the conditions to their original state.