Question: Is it bad to have white blood cells?

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  1. Hi pnemono

    No, you need white blood cells. They are part of the immune system and fight off disease and foreign materials in the body.

    If you don’t have many leukocytes (white blood cells) you will have low immunity, and having a high count of them, is often an indication that something is wrong (in terms of sickness).

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  2. Hey again. Dustin has got it. You definitely need these guys to help fight infection and maintain your immunity. Blood tests are very useful ways of working out if you are sick, especially if you have a high white blood cell count.

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  3. Hi again, pnemo!
    Dustin and Chris have given you nice answers.
    Our blood is made up of 4 parts, which are all needed in certain amounts/proportions and have different jobs: red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and plasma. As Dustin and Chris have said, white blood cells (leukocytes) are part of our immune system and are needed so that we can fight of diseases.
    Red blood cells (sometimes also called red blood corpuscles) are the cells that carry oxygen through our blood to the other tissues in our bodies. Red blood cells contain a protein called haemoglobin (a type of cytochrome!), which contains a group called haem. Haem contains an iron atom, and this iron atom can interact very strongly with oxygen molecules (because of the way it is bonded to the haem group and the rest of the protein). (The haem is what makes haemoglobin red, which is what makes the red blood cells red!) So oxygen molecules (O2) become bound to the haemoglobin in the RBC when our blood passes through the lungs, and the RBC then carry oxygen like this to the rest of our bodies. (This is why we need plenty of iron!) The bound oxygen is transferred from the haemoglobin/RBC when the oxygenated blood reaches the other tissues.

    So WBC and RBC are actually different kinds of cells that have different roles to play in our bodies.

    Just to finish off, the other cell type in our blood are platelets, which are involved in blood clotting and wound formation when we get hurt, and plasma is the liquid part of our blood (and can also contain other proteins and things). If we drink plenty of water then we have plenty of plasma and our blood is nice and fluid, but if we don’t drink enough water then we don’t have as much plasma and our blood is too thick. When our blood is filtered by our kidneys, it is the plasma that our urine comes from, and this is why we need to keep drinking water to replace what has been lost in the urine.

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  4. White blood cells are super important! It has been covered well by the others though.

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