How Fast Does Blood Flow?
The goal of maintaining appropriate interstitial homeostasis (the right nutritional environment surrounding all cells in your body) demands a constant blood flow through each of the millions of capillaries in the body.
The heart is an incredible organ, and to keep you alive, it constantly pumps your body with blood that contains oxygen and nutrients. Individuals often wonder how fast does blood flow? Let’s see some details about it.
Parameters Governing Blood Flow
The following is a basic explanation of the variables that control the flow through a particular vessel. There is a difference in pressure between the inlet and outlet of a blood vessel (Pi and Po, respectively). This is the “pressure difference” (P), and it drives blood flow.
A measure of how hard it is to move blood through a vessel is “vascular resistance.” This is because friction forms between moving blood and the vessel’s walls. A basic flow equation can then be:
Blood Flow Formula
Pressure Difference ΔP
Flow = —————————– or Q = ——-
Resistance R
It can also show how blood flows through a network of vessels, like a river (Even your whole systemic circulatory system).
Following are all factors that affect how hard it is to move through it.
- The radius
- Length
- The viscosity of the blood
- The resistance to flow
It is important to note that even a tiny change in the diameter of a vessel will significantly affect its resistance to flow (4th power). For example, if the diameter of a vessel is cut in half, its resistance to flow will increase by about 16 times.
Types of Blood Vessels
Arteries
They carry oxygenated blood from the heart to all of your body’s cells.
Capillaries
These are small blood vessels that connect the arteries and veins, and they are very thin and connect the two parts of the body.
Veins
The heart sends blood back to the body through veins. This blood is less oxygenated and has a lot of waste products that need to be excreted or taken out of the body.
Blood Pressure
It is the pressure that blood puts on the walls of a blood vessel, and this helps blood to flow through the body. Systolic blood pressure measures how much pressure blood puts on vessels when the heart is beating. The ideal systolic blood pressure should be 120 mmHg.
Diastolic blood pressure is the pressure in the blood vessels when the heart isn’t beating. It is best for the diastolic blood pressure to be 80 mmHg. Several things can make your blood pressure go up or down, such as:
The size of blood arteries, smooth muscle action, one-way valves, and blood pressure regulate blood flow throughout the body. If your blood pressure often fluctuates without any reason, you should consult a Cardiologist to know the underlying issues.
How Fast Does Blood Flow?
The heart pumps blood through the body, causing it to flow throughout the body. At first, blood is pushed away from the heart by high-pressure and high-velocity pumps in the major artery or aorta. The aorta’s blood flow is 30 centimeters per second. In the aorta, blood travels at roughly 0.026 cm/sec. It is a thousand times slower than the movement velocity in the arteries, arterioles, and capillary beds.
Each arteriole and capillary have a diameter far smaller than the diameter of the aorta. According to the law of continuity, the fluid should travel faster through a narrower diameter tube. The overall diameter of all combined capillaries is far greater than the diameter of the individual aorta, so the flow rate is slower than it should be.
Capillary beds, which move slowly through the body, can reach almost every cell. This helps with gas and nutrient exchange and the diffusion of fluid into the interstitial space.
There are more capillaries and veins after the blood leaves the aorta. The flow rate picks up again, but it’s still a lot slower than when the blood was in the aorta. When you move your body, you move your skeletal muscles, which move your veins.
This causes blood to move in your veins. When blood has to move against gravity, one-way valves keep it from going backward in the veins. If you spend a lot of time sitting down, you should get up and move around to keep blood from pooling in your legs, ankles and knee. For smooth blood flow in the body, you can take physical rehabilitation sessions. PT is considered an effective technique if you are trying to recover from knee injury or any other major bone injuries.
There are nerve and hormone signals that control blood flow through capillary beds. This is how the body knows what it needs. Most of the blood goes to the stomach after a huge meal. It is because the vessels in the digestive system open up, and the vessels in other parts of the body close down.
The skeletal muscles get more blood through vasodilation, while the digestive system gets less blood through vasoconstriction when people work out. Precapillary sphincters are small muscles that control the amount of blood that can get into some capillary beds.
A sphincter is a valve that closes and opens. When it is open, a branch of capillary blood will get blood from that branch. If all sphincters are closed, the blood will flow straight from the arteriole to the venule. It is through the thoroughfare channel, which is where the blood goes.
A person can use these muscles to control when blood flows into capillary beds. At any given time, only about 5% to 10% of our capillary beds have blood flowing through them at any given time.
Precapillary sphincters regulate the blood flow via the capillary beds. They open and close as the body needs more or less blood, and nerve and hormone signals tell them what to do.
Do not ignore your blood pressure if it is out of normal range. High blood pressure can cause serious heart problems. Therefore, we recommend that you book an appointment with the best doctor in cardiology.
FAQs
1. In how much time does blood flows through the whole body?
It takes 45 seconds for blood to travel from the heart to the rest of the body. Throughout 24 hours, the average adult’s heart beats over 100,000 times.
2. What part of the body has the most rapid blood circulation?
At the aorta, blood travels the fastest. The cross-sectional area of blood arteries directly affects blood flow velocity. A smaller cross-sectional area means faster blood flow via the arteries.
3. What is the consequence of very rapid blood flow?
A serious cardiac rhythm issue can develop from pumping blood too quickly for too long, damaging the heart muscle, and interfering with its regular electrical impulses.
