- I'm about to show you that my blood is actually yellow.
Yeah, I know I've said that blood is red,
but it's actually yellow,
and that's because of our dear friend plasma,
a friend, quite frankly, we'd like to see a lot more of,
because we're experiencing a huge plasma shortage,
and not just in your city, not just in your country,
but in the entire world.
And in honor of International Plasma Awareness Week,
I'm here to tell you what plasma is,
how we're running out,
and how your blood is actually yellow.
Huge thank you to Abbott for sponsoring this video.
Be-woo.
Imagine going down a big water slide,
it's steep, it's fast, it's dry?
Without any water, a water slide is just a tunnel of pain.
Without any plasma,
your veins and arteries would be the same thing.
You see, your blood is made up of four primary ingredients,
red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and plasma,
which is made up of a bunch of its own ingredients,
salt, enzymes, antibodies, other proteins, and water.
A lot of water.
In fact, 90% of your plasma is made up of water,
making it the perfect transportation medium
for all the good stuff in your cardiovascular system.
So what do we need plasma for?
Well, it's made for many incredible things.
We use it to produce therapies
to help folks with chronic diseases.
We can use plasma to help treat disorders like hemophilia,
genetic lung disease, or primary immunodeficiency.
Plasma even gets used in emergency situations
to treat patients who are experiencing shock,
trauma, or even serious burns.
My mom actually needed plasma transfusions
in order to help her beat her cancer diagnosis.
The need for plasma is enormous,
about 125,000 Americans are dependent
on treatments that come from plasma,
and for the individual, the need is great, too.
Just to treat one patient suffering from hemophilia A,
we need about 1200 donations for a single year.
Unfortunately, unlike the Powerpuff Girls,
plasma can't be made in a lab.
There are countless numbers of people around the world,
desperately in need of plasma,
and the only way to get it is through donations.
And because of the pandemic,
U.S. plasma collections fell by 20% in 2020,
folks stopped showing up to give.
And while a worldwide pandemic might reduce
the desire to give plasma,
it hasn't reduced the need to receive it.
See, my blood's, hold on a second, I gotta spin it down.
There are two ways we actually get plasma,
source plasma and recovered plasma.
Source plasma's where you donate your blood,
they separate the blood from the plasma,
and then return the blood back to you,
therefore, you can usually donate more often.
Recovered plasma is when you donate whole blood
and they keep everything.
And once you donate,
your plasma gets sent to wherever it's needed most.
You can literally be saving lives,
and in some instances, earn some money on the side,
but more on that later.
There are over 800 plasma donation centers
in the United States and the process is really easy,
but don't take it for me.
- It's a really safe, really seamless process.
- It's literally like three seconds of a small pinch
and then it's over.
- It's super easy, it takes like maybe an hour.
- During the process, you can sit there and do whatever.
- I was in college for most of my donations,
so I did anything from studying,
you can listen to music on your headphones,
you can bring a full-on laptop, watch movies, TV shows.
- Plasma gets replaced in the body about every 24 hours,
so you're allowed to donate twice a week.
- For me going twice every week,
it really helped so many people,
so it's just become a part of my daily life.
- That's two times a week you could donate your sweet,
sweet yellow blood.
Wait, is your blood really yellow?
Well, obviously, if you ever had to cauter a bloody nose,
you know that your blood is red, but is it?
It turns out that your blood is composed of many things,
but mostly plasma,
which normally makes up about 55% of your blood.
And once the blood enters the centrifuge and it's separated,
plasma's actually yellow.
Like I said, the majority of your blood is yellow.
So if the majority of your blood is plasma
and plasma is yellow, then your blood would actually be,
well, it's still red, but you get the picture.
So why is your blood red if the majority of it
is composed of yellow plasma?
Well, that's because of a protein
in your blood cells called hemoglobin,
which combines with iron molecules
to transport oxygen throughout your body.
And what happens to iron when it oxidizes?
It rusts and turns red.
For example,
have you ever left something made of iron outside too long?
Maybe you forgot to put your bike away, it rained,
and then all of a sudden the chain started to rust.
Well, what's happening is the iron molecules
are oxidizing and turning red,
the same thing that happens to the iron in your blood cells.
Well, it's not the same thing,
your blood cells aren't rusting.
Look, it's not a perfect metaphor.
(upbeat music)
Are you chock full of all of your plasma
and still unsure if you should donate?
We'll try this one on for size.
Depending on where you are and with whom you donate,
you can actually get paid for your plasma,
turning your golden plasma into actual gold, and it works,
resulting in two-thirds of the world's plasma donations,
coming from right here in the U.S.
- You literally just get to chill there
and do whatever you want and make money for it,
and you get to help a ton of people out doing it.
- Visit bethe1donor.abbott to learn
where you can donate plasma
and get answers to all of your other questions.
It's fast, it's easy, and it can save lives.
Speaking of saving lives,
what's the rarest blood type in the world?
Click here to find out.
Huge thank you to Abbott for sponsoring this video,
and, as always, stay happy and healthy.
(upbeat music)