why does your blood turn red when mixed with oxygen?

I am a Girl Scout leader. Today I was teaching the girls about taking their pulse and boy did I get a ton of questions. Being a trained AF medic I was able to answer all but one. I promised a girl to get the answer next week and she thanked me profusly. I guess she’s been curious about this for a while.
Apparently a lot of the girls were told that blood was blue until it hits oxygen. I remember being told this as a child as well. Through our skin our veins are blue. what causes this?

Hemoglobin is the pigment in the red blood cells that carries oxygen and co2. When it carries o2, it is a brighter red than when it carries co2.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 11:11 pm and is filed under pulse oxygen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “why does your blood turn red when mixed with oxygen?”

kurtandyugi on November 13th, 2009 at 4:45 am

it might seem to meld into red, but actually blood is red because of the existense of iron in our blood, which makes blood red.
References :
mrknositall on November 13th, 2009 at 5:20 am

Veins and arteries are blue. Blood is red. the more oxygenated the blood, the deeper red.
References :
WontonTheKillerPanda on November 13th, 2009 at 5:30 am

iron and oxygen….it’s the same reaction that creates rust. The iron oxidizes
References :
hermionega on November 13th, 2009 at 5:56 am

Blood natural is red the pigment in your skin makes the veins seem blue.
References :
Buzz s on November 13th, 2009 at 6:28 am

Hemoglobin is the pigment in the red blood cells that carries oxygen and co2. When it carries o2, it is a brighter red than when it carries co2.
References :

Pulse