Empeiria

Making red blood cells

Clinically: Erythropoiesis

bone marrow
What normal looks like

The marrow makes roughly two million red cells every second. Each one lasts about 120 days, so the whole population turns over in about four months -- which is why a change in iron or B12 status takes months to show fully in a blood count.

unverified These explanations are written to be easy to read and have not yet been checked against a source. The ranges and measurement notes on this page show theirs.

function unverified

Your bone marrow is constantly building new red blood cells to replace old ones. It needs iron, vitamin B12 and folate to do it. Because each cell lasts about four months, fixing a shortage takes months to show up in a blood test.

Your bone marrow is constantly building new red blood cells to replace old ones. It needs iron, vitamin B12 and folate to do it. Because each cell lasts about four months, fixing a shortage takes months to show up in a blood test.

No clinical version written yet.

In clinical terms

Production and maturation of erythrocytes in the bone marrow under erythropoietin control.