How fast does blood travel through the body?
1 Answer
It depends on which part of the body it is in.
Explanation:
The heart pumps in average 70 ml of blood every beat, and it beats in average 72 beats per minute.That means every minute the heart pumps 70 x 72 = 5.04 liters of blood which is nearly the amount of the blood in the body.
So it takes one minute in average for the whole amount of blood to circulate the whole body.
These numbers of course vary a little from one person to another and from one reference to another as well.
The speed of the blood also varies from one point of the circulatory system to another as it is pumped at the fastest speed possible when coming out side the heart. This speed becomes less and less and reaches nearly zero in the capillary area. This helps the exchange process to happen efficiently. As the blood leaves the capillary towards the venioles, it must be pushed by the surrounding muscles to go back to the heat as its own speed it zero.
