WEBVTT - I Drink Your Blood Type 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:06.520 Blood drinkers, night walkers, children of the night. Why hunt 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:09.159 for scraps in the shadows when you can feast in 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:14.160 style at New York City's hottest, trendiest vampire night clown 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:18.919 doors open at midnight and we let in only the 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:25.840 juiciest mortal party goers who appease your diabolical thirst. Yes, 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:30.760 we offer seductive lounges, blood bath dance floors, and people 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:34.680 dancing in cages. So many people dancing in cages, we 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:36.159 don't even know how to give them out. They just 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:41.360 keep dancing. And unlike typical vampire nightclubs, we separate the 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:46.240 herd by blood type for your convenience. At Blute, you 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:49.479 will feast in the certainty that all human partiers and 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:52.000 our medievalist to prove thrown room are Type A B 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.080 and our foam dance party room runs on type old 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:03.960 negative exclusively guarantee. So don'tly blood chance club flood. Look 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:05.600 for us on Vampire You help, and don't forget to 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:10.520 leave a review. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:20.319 a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey you, 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:22.080 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.360 Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. Hey, it's still October. 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:29.000 That means we're partying. That's right. It's Halloween, and Halloween 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:32.959 means blood. It also means vampires. As I think everyone 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.959 probably got the idea from from the title this episode 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.880 and from the cold open that we just inflicted upon you. 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.120 You know, what I was just wondering is whether in 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.760 the month of October people actually, like in the industry, 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:47.480 you can see a spike in demand for Caro syrup 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:50.200 or general you know, corn syrup products and and red 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.880 food coloring, is the demand for fake blood enough to 0:01:53.960 --> 0:01:57.720 make a dent in an otherwise massive agricultural or industrial 0:01:57.760 --> 0:01:59.680 food product. Well, I mean it depends. I mean a 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.600 lot of po're just gonna buy a bottle of fake blood. 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:04.360 They're not going to bother to mix their own. I 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:06.640 guess that's true. You know, I bet mixing your own 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:08.840 is cheaper though. Oh I'm sure it is. But not 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.240 everybody has the skill to create a you know, a 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:15.440 good batch of Kensington gore. Uh. I remember when I 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:17.160 was a kid, I was trying to make fake blood 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:19.639 and I did it by mixing red food coloring with water. 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:23.400 And that was how I discovered that blood is thick. Yeah, 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:25.320 I mean, it's far better just to shoot it all 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:28.560 in black and white and use chocolate syrup. But even 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.120 that gets a little little little pricy, I imagine, And 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:33.720 also it's gonna know, just attract a bunch of ants. 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:37.440 But yeah, when you think Halloween, you think monsters, you 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:40.200 think vampires, and of course you think blood. Now, blood 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:42.160 hasn't really changed in the course of human history, but 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:46.600 our understanding of blood has. Blood Letting used to be 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:50.760 a lot more common, right, yeah. Uh, and sometimes sometimes 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.160 vampire tails change to reflect some of the new ideas 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:56.720 regarding blood. Oh yeah, Like I'm sure you can see 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:59.919 vampire lore being affected by, say that the four humor 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:02.520 theory when that was in vogue, like the idea you 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:05.520 could have a sanguine personality that might be caused by 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:07.800 an excess of blood in the body. I'm sure that 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.040 that makes them specially juicy targets for vampires or something 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:12.640 that you're gonna mean, there's like there are there are 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:15.240 four different vampires for each of the humors, right, oh right, 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:17.600 so you get the black bile vampire and the worst 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:22.440 kind of vampire to be because it's so bitter. So yeah, 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.520 the ideas of what blood is may change, But of 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.240 course there's first of all, the simple notion that blood 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:32.359 is food. Various human cultures include the consumption of animal 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:35.120 blood in one form or another in their cuisine. Blood 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.880 sausage is one example of that. Blood tofu and in 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:42.120 certain Chinese cuisines is another example. Never heard of this 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:46.480 blood tofu? Yeah, look aout made from blood? Blood? Okay? Uh? 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:49.200 And then there's the idea of blood is this is 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:52.520 a fluid that contains our vital life force. Right, this 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:55.360 is a classic of the vampire trope. Uh. And then 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.400 naturally we do need blood to survive. But traditions have 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:01.880 you know, tend to go above and beyond biological fact 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:04.480 and stressing this. Oh yeah, the blood takes on a 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:08.280 kind of magical essence. It's the you know, the ecore 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.880 of the human. Uh, there is I think you can 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:15.920 see this often when there is emphasis on monsters and 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:19.359 other creatures having differently colored blood than humans do. Like 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:22.640 their blood isn't red, it's green, and that shows that 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.520 there's some different there's some kind of different essence to them. 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.839 And then there's also all kinds of beliefs about um, 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.919 you know that your affinity for your family is based 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:35.400 on the metaphor that you share blood, which is funny 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:38.599 because you might not necessarily share physical characteristics of blood. 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:40.600 You might not have the same blood type as either 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.479 one of your parents. But there's this idea that you're 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:46.200 bound by blood and that I think that takes on 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:49.200 a more kind of a magical kind of quality in 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.600 people's minds. Yeah, this idea that there's this bloodline flowing 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:56.000 through the centuries. Um. I do have to say, I 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:59.479 love a creative blood color, and some in a monster 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:02.880 or so certainly in like a Star Trek Alien type 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.520 of scenario, if there's only so many colors, like what 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.000 you mean, like purple blood or what? Oh yeah, wasn't 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.080 it Star Trek the Undiscovered country where the Klingons had 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:14.279 had pink blood like looks like pepto bismal. Oh. I 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:16.919 always chalks that up too bad early c G I, 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:19.520 because they're in their blood c G I, And that 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:21.799 movie is like really early c G I floating around 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:24.640 in the zero G environment after the AA it is 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:28.159 really impressive. Well, it looks terrible now, but that movie 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:29.600 still holds up. Is one of the better of the 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:32.760 Star Trek movies. Now, in modern times, you'll often encounter 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:36.800 vampire stories that invoke blood banks and and uh and 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:41.400 blood drives sometimes uh and sometimes you'll even see recognition 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:45.080 of blood types, and generally this amounts to which blood 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:49.520 of vampire finds most tasty interesting. I don't think I'm 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:51.640 very familiar with it. Well. I am familiar with, of course, 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:54.279 blood banks and blood drives, because I remember when I 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:55.880 was a kid and my family would go to the 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:58.159 beach and we get Sci Fi channel on the TV. 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.440 I'd watch that show Forever Night, which is about a 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:04.640 good guy vampire who is also a cop, and he 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:08.560 keeps a refrigerator full of like blood bank style blood bags. 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:10.839 I guess he drinks those in order to not have 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:13.560 to kill people because he's good. Oh man, Forever Night. 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:15.560 I never watched Forever Night, but it's one of those 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:18.760 Canadian series where a lot of times I'll watch another 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:20.760 Canadian series and I'll look it up and it's like, oh, 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:22.960 this person is from Forever Night. Forever Night is the 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:27.040 like the beating heart at the center of Canadian drama 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:29.560 from that period of time. Yeah, I mean I never 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:31.640 saw that much of it, but in the episodes I 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:33.960 saw because he's a good guy. He doesn't drink from 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.880 next he drinks from bags. There's um there's a Tales 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:42.440 from the Crypto episode that called the Reluctant Vampire that 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:48.240 started Malcolm McDowell as as the titular Reluctant Vampire and 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:50.359 also had just an all star cast. Of course, like 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:55.920 all those episodes, just an embarrassment of riches generally squandered 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.240 on some sort of in a sappy, bad taste kind 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:01.200 of plot. But this was this episodes pretty good. But 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:03.839 in that one he's depending on a blood bank as well. 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:08.839 But then occasionally like meeting real live hosts to prey upon, 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:11.160 and he ends up asking them a lot of questions about, 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:13.720 you know, if they had dental surgery recently, that sort 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:16.160 of thing. But but he he never asked them about 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.120 their actual blood type, dental surgery. Wait, like he fears 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:21.520 the amalgam in their teeth or something like they might 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:23.880 have silver and if he just needs to have a 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:28.200 good you know, pacent you know, biomedical history before he 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:31.880 uses them as his prey. Fair enough, now, of course, 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:36.040 the the HBO series True Blood features vampires that have 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:39.360 a clear preference when it comes to blood type and 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.680 they use the synthetic blood product that's labeled and bottled 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:46.400 called true Blood, which is in the show available in 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:49.840 in different types, so you can get your oh negative 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:53.000 true blood bottle you if you prefer a B, they 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:54.880 have a B as well. Oh so all the I 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:57.240 haven't seen true Blood, but all these vampires are of 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.160 the Forever Night type where they don't drink from p all. 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:02.760 They drink from bags they're supposed to because it's basically 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.520 like vampires are out amongst us, uh, and we're living 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:09.480 alongside each other. They have kind of their separate government. 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:11.840 We have ours, and there's like a treaty that says 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:15.640 they're only going to drink their synthetic blood products or 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:19.280 you know, consenting adult humans that wish to have their 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:23.360 blood drained that sort of thing. Okay, it's kind of 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:25.440 a mixed bag, but it it also has a wonderful 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.760 cast and Dennis O'Hare in particular was a real standout 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:32.320 playing this character who was the King of Mississippi. Stephen 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:34.640 Root also showed up at one point and it was great. 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:39.080 Steven Roots wonderful. Yeah. Um, there's another movie at this 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:41.480 time that I ran across that was interesting that invokes 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:46.800 blood Types nine the Return of Doctor X. No. I 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:48.720 I was not even familiar with this at all because 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:54.600 it stars Humphrey Bogart as an evil doctor yeah, who's 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:56.880 been brought back to life because this is a sequel, 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:58.679 uh in this in this movie is brought back to 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:01.600 life with synthetic blood, and he has to find TYPO 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:04.280 victims and drain their blood and use it in order 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:08.360 to stay alive because his syn synthetic blood cannot replenish itself. 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:12.920 This was a few years before The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:16.440 In case anyone's wondering, you know, I like, I really 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:19.040 like Humphrey Bogart as a villain type character, or at 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:21.640 least as a very dark and troubled character, as opposed 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:23.440 to well, I don't know. You might say that he 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:27.160 has shades of villainousness in his detective stories and in Casablanca, 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:30.440 but in movies like a Lonely Place, or he plays 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.679 this like scary, abusive creep or in Treasure of the 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.079 Sierra Mare. I guess you could say also, I think 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:38.560 Bogart actually makes a great villain, and I wish you 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:40.440 had seen him as a villain more often. So I 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.080 want to see this. Yeah, and now, of course Dr 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:45.839 X is no typical vampire. Generally, the you know, the 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:49.440 models very much parasitic in nature. Perhaps a vampire can 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:53.320 taste the difference amid blood types in the same manner 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.080 that a wine connoisseur can taste things in the wine 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:58.079 that others can't, or at least can, you know, claims 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.360 to have that ability. I love you. You've got some 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:04.240 skepticism about the smell, yea. I want to come back 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:06.880 to it at some point because I feel like there 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:08.720 was an old episode of the show where we we 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:10.840 looked at one of these studies that was a real 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.080 um don't I mean, I don't even know that what 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:14.760 extended was a true study was just kind of a 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:18.720 guy who got your exercise with wine experts, like tricking 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:21.720 them into saying one wine was another and and and 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:25.559 so forth. But I think there's I'd like to to 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:28.640 give the topic due diligence sometime and really get into 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:30.960 like because sometimes the you know, the idea of priming 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:33.080 and you know, bringing in some of prior knowledge to 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.000 your experience of the wine. Uh, you see people talk 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:38.200 about that is if that's a you know, a negative, 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:40.280 you know, But I mean that's part of your appreciation 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:42.960 of any kind of food product or or certainly a 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:46.000 wine is knowing where it came from and making connections, 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:49.760 and if some of the connections or maybe partially imagined 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:52.400 or exaggerated based on your prior knowledge. I don't think 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:55.080 that's necessarily a bad thing at all. Have you been 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:57.960 to any of these places that do wine style tasting 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:01.960 notes but for oysters, Um, yes, I have. I'm all 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:04.320 in on that. When I have the oyster, I'm like, yes, 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.319 I take yes, that's right, salted melon. Yeah, I mean 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:09.920 the cases like that, they're providing me with this the 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:15.000 specific terminology and descriptive language that I don't have, uh, 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:17.960 you know, regarding oysters or or certainly wine or what 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:19.959 have you. And again and then I can I can 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.959 look for those things in my my taste sensation that 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.280 I'm experiencing right now. Once they give you the words 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:27.000 for it, you can kind of find it in the 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:32.559 sensation void With With most cases of fictional vampires, though, yeah, 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:35.240 they're I think we can we can assume that, yeah, 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.360 maybe they could taste some sort of difference in the 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:42.600 blood type. You know, they're essentially parasitic. They're they're digesting 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:44.959 the blood now, and since they're digesting the blood, you 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:47.760 know it's not gonna matter, um you know what kind 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:50.680 of what type of blood it is, because they're digestive 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:53.080 system is going to break down all those troublesome proteins. 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:56.520 But then again, I don't think I've ever seen outside 0:11:56.520 --> 0:11:59.040 of doctor X here, I don't think I've encountered a 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:04.720 vampire or vampire like creation that can only use one 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:08.559 particular blood type. Well, if you imagine vampire physiology a 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:11.040 little bit different, like you're saying that they just use 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:13.640 a normal style digestive system, break it down for the 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:16.360 nutrition in it. What if it's that the vampire drinks 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:18.640 blood in order to have blood, So like when the 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:22.360 vampire drinks blood, they're essentially getting a blood transfusion. In 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:25.360 that case, maybe the vampire would need, in fact to 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.120 have a compatibility test for the right kind of blood 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:30.320 because drinking the wrong kind of blood could give them 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:33.439 an immune response. Yeah, that would I think that could 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:35.880 make sense because it also would would line up with 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:39.760 some of these descriptions from folklore where they would dig 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:42.240 up the body of the vampire and it would be 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:46.280 just just just thick and bloated with blood, like every 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.560 you know, all its entire all of its flesh is 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:51.800 just just completely ballooned up with the stuff. You know, 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:56.360 you're saying that's the swelling of the allergic reaction. Yeah, maybe, 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:58.959 so maybe that's the that's the explanation. Well, maybe we 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:01.720 should get into how blood types actually work, because I 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:04.280 realized not too long ago that this is something I 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.280 should know, and I actually didn't, so I had to 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:08.800 go and read up about it. Yeah, it's it's easy 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:11.480 to go through life without knowing the explanation for it, 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:14.080 and just and hopefully just knowing what your blood type is, 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.800 but not necessarily what that means. Right, Well, should we 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:19.680 take a break first and then come back and talk 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:25.840 about the blood type basics. Let's do it. Thank thank alright, 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:28.720 we're back, all right. So, if you know your blood type, 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:31.440 or if you've seen blood types listed before, you generally 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:35.000 will have seen a letter followed by a plus or 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:37.600 minus sign and that letter is probably going to be 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:42.400 A or B or a B or Oh. But so okay, 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:44.679 you know they're at least several different types of blood, 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:46.720 but you might not know what they do. In fact, 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:50.080 there are actually many different blood type families. I think 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:52.800 the known number of human blood group systems is now 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:55.800 somewhere in the forties. So there are tons of different 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:59.640 ways of classifying and grouping blood. But the most common 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:04.280 and most important blood group types to discuss are the A, B, 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.719 O blood group system and what's known as the R 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:10.640 H factor. Now you've heard of these before, but what 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:15.240 do they mean? Simply put, blood type refers to which 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:19.240 category of antigens you will find on the outside of 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:22.720 your red blood cells, and that in turn determines how 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:26.640 your body's immune system responds to different types of blood 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.600 from other donors because of the antigens on the outside 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.480 of their red blood cells, and also how other people's 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:35.200 bodies would respond to your blood if you if given 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:37.680 a transfusion from you. By the way, Joe, before we 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.440 go any any further, what is your blood type? I 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:43.720 almost answered, but then I stopped. Should I reveal my 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.720 blood type on air? I wonder? I'm getting flashes of 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:49.880 some future like cyber scenario where I regret sharing this 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:54.080 information publicly. Well, I can't think of a way people 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:56.400 would use it against us. I can think of a 0:14:56.400 --> 0:15:00.240 way Facebook will use it against us. Okay, Well, don't 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:01.920 have to reveal if you don't want to. You want 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:04.200 to reveal yours, Well, I mean, I don't mind saying 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:07.480 that I'm I'm typo negatives. Oh nice, just like the 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.600 goth industrial band of the same name. Well, you also 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:14.520 have a rare and important blood group, as we'll discuss 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.960 as we go on. Yes, and we'll we'll just consider 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.960 Joe's blood type to be of what blood type enigma 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:24.120 will we'll lead into the listeners to imagine what it 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:27.640 might be blood type question mark equal sign Yes, okay. 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:30.400 So red blood cells, we know they serve the function 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:33.640 of traveling through the body and transporting oxygen molecules to 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:37.200 body tissues, and they also carry away carbon dioxide. And 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:39.720 so the outsides of the red blood cells in your 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:43.040 body will have these little molecules on the outside of 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.840 these structures made of molecules, uh that on on the 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:50.960 top layers of these structures consist of various types of 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:54.560 antigens that the and of course, an antigen is just 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:58.320 something that your body's immune system can recognize as a 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.680 threat and react to. And so your red blood cells 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:07.320 can have either a antigens, be antigens both or neither. 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:11.160 If your red blood cells just have A antigens, just 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:13.720 these A antigen molecules on the outer layer, you have 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:17.320 blood type A. If you have just BE antigens, you 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.640 have blood type B. If you have both your blood 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.320 type A B, and if you have neither, you are 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.240 blood type Oh all right, I think that's pretty straightforward. 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.000 So really, yeah, they're they're like two critters at play here. 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:32.080 You can have either one, both, or neither. Now, of course, 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:34.800 blood types are genetically inherited. You get them from your 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:38.360 biological parents, but your a bio blood type is based 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:41.920 on interactions between a number of dominant and recessive genes. 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:44.920 So the correlation between your parents blood types and your 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.480 own blood type can be kind of confusing. It can, 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:50.720 for example, happen that your blood type might be different 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:53.200 from both of your parents blood types because of a 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:57.080 dominant recessive interaction. Um. But if you want to work 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:00.440 it out, you can look up inheritance matrices for blood 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:02.760 type online. These are easy to find, right, Or you 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:05.320 can just do like most families do and just put 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:07.320 your blood in a petri dish and just go around 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:09.120 in a circle and put a hot wiring a bit. 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:12.680 That way, he can find out whose family and who's 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:16.840 definitely not well. It's funny how how close that that 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:19.080 scene in the thing is to some of the early 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:21.480 tests that were done to figure out what was going 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.320 on with blood types. Get into that in a minute. Um, 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:27.359 So again, why does it matter which type of blood 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:30.000 you have if you're going to receive a blood transfusion. Well, again, 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:33.000 it's because of your immune system. So within your body, 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:36.080 you've got in your blood plasma, you have white blood cells, 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:38.440 and you've got antibodies that were kind of like defense 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:42.959 drones latching on to certain types of antigens that they 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:45.480 encounter things in your body that seem like they might 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.959 be some bit of dangerous foreign material in the blood. 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:51.680 And of course the main thing you'd be worried about, 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:54.639 there are some kinds of germs. Right now, generally we 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:58.520 don't have antibodies that will attack our own red blood cells. 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:00.840 So if you have blood type A, meaning you've got 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.639 these A antigens on the outside of your red blood cells, 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:08.600 your immune system will not attack A antigens because you 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.479 know you need to not attack them. They're they're going 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:14.640 to be abundant throughout you. But it probably will attack 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:18.920 BE antigens and vice versa. So generally your immune system 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:22.760 will attack whichever of these little molecules on the outside 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:26.320 of red blood cells you don't naturally have. So it 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:28.560 works out like this. If you have type A blood, 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:31.959 your immune system will attack BE antigens. If you have 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:35.760 type B blood, your immune system will attack A antigens. 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:39.320 If you have type A B blood, you have both antigens, 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.119 so your immune system will attack neither of them. If 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:45.239 you have type O blood, you have neither antigens, so 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:49.160 your immune system will attack both. Following so far, yeah, 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:51.040 I think I think it's pretty straightforward for everybody. So 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.760 it's basically you know the starbillied sneeches, except a little 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:58.760 more complicated, like like you know three or four different 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.800 tribes of sneeches, right. I mean this means that when 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:04.560 you donate or receive a blood transfusion, you don't always 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:08.240 just need to match the same type between donor and recipient. 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.880 There are these inherent asymmetries and who can receive what 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:15.399 types of blood. For example, if you have a B blood, 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.240 you can receive blood from any other type. You can 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:20.640 receive A blood, you can receive B blood, you can 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:23.800 receive A B blood or OH blood. It doesn't matter 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.199 because you don't in your blood plasma have antibodies to 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:29.959 attack any of those other types of red blood cells. 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:33.600 And for this reason, type A B is the universal 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:37.639 recipient class. But if you donate A B blood, that 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.359 blood can only go to a recipient who is also 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.159 a BE because that recipient otherwise is going to have 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:47.560 immune system reaction to one of one or both of 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:50.399 those antigens on the outside of those cells. Now, on 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:53.040 the flip side, type OH blood, which has neither A 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.679 nor BE antigens, is the universal donor class. You can 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:59.680 give type OH blood to people with A B, A B, 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:02.359 or OH and it will usually be fine. Now I 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:04.840 think we should say that these donor you know, these 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:07.879 donor safety statements are for most cases, these are like, 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:10.000 on average, they'll be better. They're always kind of like 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:13.720 anomalous reactions people can have to any type of protonation, 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:16.360 and and and and that also gets into the fact 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:20.680 that all things being equal, an exact match is always preferred, 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:24.000 but certainly in an emergency. Uh, that's when you see 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:27.000 cases where where you know the universal donor can come 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:30.159 in exactly. And that's a one reason A common practice 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.119 in modern hospitals and clinics today is to collect blood 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:36.240 from a patient in advance of a preplanned surgery or 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.359 procedure in which a transfusion might be necessary. So if 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:42.400 you're going in for surgery these days, they'll usually take 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:44.879 some of your blood, you know, the day before, the 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:48.480 week before the surgery, and that way, if you suddenly 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:51.800 need a transfusion, if there's some emergency during the procedure, 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:55.240 you can receive your own blood, decreasing the chance of 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:58.920 an immune immune reaction or any other compatibility issue. It's 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:02.919 not that you're octor is of secret vampire right and 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:05.760 just needs a taste before things get going right. But 0:21:05.800 --> 0:21:08.240