Erythrocytes are so small that a single drop of blood can contain 250 million of them. This gives them an advantage in being able to move with ease in the veins. However, the human body contains blood vessels with a diameter even smaller than the erythrocytes’. At first glance, this might seem to represent a problem, because the erythrocyte must squeeze through blood vessels that are even narrower than itself. How does this difficult process take place?
At this point, the erythrocytes’ flexible structure goes into operation. Thanks to their flat, exceedingly flexible structure, they are able to travel through even the narrowest blood vessels. This flexibility is another example of these cells’ creation. If erythrocytes lose just a little of that flexibility, serious consequences arise. In some diabetes patients, for example, sensitive tissues in the eyes become congested by erythrocytes that have lost their flexibility, which can lead to blindness in extreme cases.6 As just one example shows, every part of the human body is created with an exceedingly sensitive, flawless equilibrium.
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