The Miracle of Blood Clotting

The Miracle of Blood Clotting

By Dr Richard Kent, MB BS  

Website  www.drrichardkent.org  

Email address: [email protected]

                     

Introduction

I thought today that I would look at clotting of the human blood when the cut ourselves.

Image 1 – cut finger

We all cut ourselves frequently, and hardly think about it! Sometimes we stick some plaster over the cut!

Within a few days the cut has healed itself, and we forget all about it!

The clotting process involved in healing a cut is incredibly complicated, and yet we take it completely for granted.

It is so complex that it could not possibly have evolved by chance.

There are about 9 pints of blood in the human body.

We can cut our skin every day, so it is essential that all cuts in the skin rapidly heal themselves, or we would bleed to death at a very young age!

The problem is not quite so simple.

It is equally essential that the blood does not clot when it is moving freely around the body in arteries and veins.

Very rarely blood does clot in an artery or vein, and serious illness, or even death, rapidly results.

Examples of this are:

  • A heart attack
  • A deep vein thrombosis in the calf
  • A stroke in the brain

As you can see there are many potential problems!

This is why the clotting process is so complicated that it is not well understood.

 

Platelets

Image 2- platelets

 

Platelets (thrombocytes) help blood to clot by forming something called a platelet plug.

Image 3- platelet plug

The other way that blood clots is through coagulation factors.

Platelets also help to promote other blood clotting mechanisms.

 

Platelets (thrombocytes)

Are disc-shaped cell fragments with no nucleus

Normal platelet count is 150,000-400,000/drop of blood

Form in bone marrow by myeloid stem cells

Eventually become megakaryocytes whose cell fragments form platelets

Have a short life span (5 to 9 days in bloodstream)

Aged ones are removed by fixed macrophages in liver and spleen

Platelets contain many chemicals that assist clotting. These include:

  • Actin and myosin, to help them contract
  • Chemicals that help the coagulation process to begin
  • Chemicals that attract other platelets
  • Chemicals that stimulate blood vessel repair
  • Chemicals that stabilize a blood clot

The final formed element found within the blood is platelets.

Platelets are much smaller than red blood cells, and serve to stop blood loss from wounds (haemostasis).

 

Formation of platelets in the bone marrow

Image 4 – formation of platelets in the bone marrow

 

Haemostasis

Haemostasis is the stoppage of bleeding in a quick & localized fashion when blood vessels are damaged

It prevents haemorrhage (loss of a large amount of blood)

 

Process of Haemostasis

Stage 1. Vascular spasm

Image 5- Vascular spasm

 

Damage to blood vessel stimulates pain receptors

Reflex vasoconstriction of small blood vessels and arterioles occurs

This can reduce blood loss for several hours until other mechanisms can take over

 

Stage 2. Platelet plug formation, 3 steps –

Step one platelet adhesion

Image 5- platelet adhesion

Platelets stick to exposed collagen underlying damaged endothelial cells in vessel wall

Step two – platelet release reaction

Image 6- platelet release reaction

Platelets activated by adhesion

Extend projections to make contact with each other

Release ADP, and vasoconstrictors called Thromboxane A2 and Serotonin (further decrease blood flow)

Causes stickiness activating other platelets

 

Step3. Platelet aggregation –

Image 7- Platelet aggregation

Activated platelets stick together

These activated new platelets form a mass called a platelet plug

Plug is reinforced by fibrin threads formed during clotting process

 

Stage 3 – Blood clotting

Image 8 – blood coagulation and formation of fibrin threads

If blood is drawn from the body

  • It thickens into a gel,
  • Separates into liquid (serum)
  • And a clot of insoluble fibers (fibrin) in which the cells are trapped

 

Substances required for clotting are

  • Ca+2,
  • Enzymes synthesized by liver cells
  • Clotting factors
  • Substances released by platelets or damaged tissues

 

Stage 4 – Blood coagulation cascade

Image 9 – blood coagulation cascade

The blood coagulation cascade is an incredibly complex cascade of reactions in which each clotting factor activates the next in a fixed sequence.

This results in the formation of fibrin threads.

Prothrombinase is formed by either the intrinsic or extrinsic pathway

 

 

Image 10 – intrinsic and extrinsic pathway

Image 11 – the conversion of prothrombin to thrombin

Overview of clotting cascade

In fact this is a very much simplified version of what actually happens in a blood clot!

If i were to read out the huge number of steps involved, it would take me about 10 minutes, and that is only a simplified version!

The following factors are involved!

  1. Tissue factor
  2. Convertin
  3. Stuart factor
  4. Activated Stuart factor
  5. Proaccelerin 
  6. Thrombin
  7. Accelerin
  8. Glu-prothrombin
  9. Prothrombin enzyme
  10. Vitamin 
  11. Gla-prothrombin
  12. Glutamate
  13. Gama carboxy glutamate
  14. Gls-prothrombin 
  15. Calcium
  16. Gla-prothrombin
  17. Calcium-prothrombin complex
  18. Activated Stuart
  19. Accerlerin
  20. Thrombin
  21. Prothrombin-ca
  22. Fibrinogin
  23. Fibrin
  24. Fsf (fibrin stabilizing factor)
  25. Activated fibrin stabilizing factor
  26. Prothrombinase
  27. Thromboplastin
  28. Factor vii
  29. Collagen
  30. Phospholipids
  31. Platelet factor iii (pf3)
  32. Calcium ions
  33. Insoluble fibrin threads
  34. Hageman factor
  35. Enzyme called HMK
  36. Activated Hageman factor
  37. Pre kallikrein
  38. Kallikrein
  39. PTA
  40. HMK
  41. Activated PTA
  42. Christmas factor
  43. Activated Christmas factor
  44. Antihaemophiliac factor
  45. Activated Antihaemophiliac factor
  46. Proconvertin
    • I have just read out 46 separate factors that are associated in the clotting cascade.
    • In fact there are many more factors involved, and each stage cannot progress to the next stage until the current stage has been completed.

Here are some questions for the sceptic evolutionists

One: What are the chances of all of these 46 separate and highly complex chemicals being present at exactly the right place and at the right time for clotting to proceed?

Two: how do the believers in evolution propose that these 46 factors are all selected in exactly the right order for clotting to proceed?

Three: all living organisms require an active clotting process to prevent instant death following injury. In other words, there is not time for an evolutionary process to randomly fall in place, before the species is completely annihilated!

Four: how do these evolutionists propose a mechanism to ensure that clotting does not happen unless the skin is cut, or a blood vessel is ruptured.

In other words, how do the evolutionists propose a mechanism to ensure that heart attacks, strokes, and venous thrombosis does not occur all the time, so that the species is completely annihilated!

To me the clotting process is a paramount example of irreducible complexity.

The process must be absolutely perfect at the conception of all living organisms, in order to prevent guaranteed premature death!

It seems to me that evolutionists simply have not thought about the highly complex situation of any living organism with circulating blood.

It is perfectly clear to me that a whole clotting process has been beautifully and perfectly designed by a supreme intelligence. His name is jesus christ.

 

Stage 5 – clot retraction  

Image 12 – clot retraction

  • Clot retraction follows minutes after cascade
  • The clot plugs the ruptured area of a blood vessel
  • Platelets pull on fibrin threads causing clot retraction and expelling serum
  • Edges of damaged vessel are pulled together,
  • Endothelial cells repair the blood vessel

Stage 6 Clot prevention in blood vessels

  • Heparin from basophils acts as anticoagulants
  • Fibrinolytic system dissolves small, inappropriate clots & clots at a site of a completed repair
  • Inactive plasminogen becomes plasmin which dissolves fibrin threads
  • Clot formation remains localized
  • Blood disperses clotting factors

 

Stage 7 Removing the clot once the wound has healed

Again, this is highly complex, and involves the following factors: 

  1. Plasminogin
  2. Plasmin
  3. Fibrin filaments
  4. Alpha 2 Antiplasm
  5. Antithrombin
  6. Activated Christmas,
  7. Activated Stuart
  8. Thrombin.
  9. Protein c
  10. Activated Protein c.
  11. Accelerin
  12. Activated Antihaemophilic
  13. Thrombomodulin

A logical question

How does evolution produce the whole set of enzymes or factors in the clotting cascade in order to successfully accomplish the breakdown of clots?

What is the biggest killer of human beings?

Blood clots!

Most heart attacks and strokes are caused by blood clots.

I believe the way your body shuts down the clotting cascade is a fascinating as the clotting process itself.

The problem!

Blood clotting: a biological miracle

One relatively simple process necessary for animal life is the ability for blood to clot to seal a wound and prevent an injured animal (or person) from bleeding to death.

One relatively simple process necessary for animal life is the ability for blood to clot to seal a wound and prevent an injured animal (or person) from bleeding to death. Yet the only way this intricate system works is when many complicated chemical substances interact. If only one ingredient is missing or doesn’t function in the right way—as in the genetic blood disorder haemophilia—the process fails, and the victim bleeds to death.

How can complex substances appear at just the right time in the right proportions and mix properly to clot blood and prevent death? Either they function flawlessly or clotting doesn’t work at all.

At the same time, medical science is aware of clotting at the wrong time. Blood clots that cut off the flow of oxygen to the brain are a leading cause of strokes and often result in paralysis or death. When blood clots, either everything works perfectly or the likely outcome is death.

For evolution to have led to this astounding phenomenon, multiple mutations of just the right kind had to converge simultaneously or the mutations would be useless. Evolutionists can offer no realistic explanation of how this is possible.

Consider for just a moment the conundrum posed by blood clotting.

It is critical that the circulatory system have a means to prevent blood loss when it is damaged

But this process must only occur when needed, and humans cannot afford to have this clot spread to healthy vessels.

A clotting network must be available

There must be an effective means of terminating the clotting cascade once the vessels have been repaired.

In his book “Darwin’s black box”, biochemist Michael Behe observed:

  • When a pressurized blood circulation system is punctured, a clot must form quickly or the animal will bleed to death.
  • If blood congeals at the wrong time or place, though, then the clot may block circulation as it does in heart attacks and strokes.
  • Furthermore, a clot has to stop bleeding all along the length of the cut, sealing it completely.
  • Yet blood clotting must be confined to the cut or the entire blood system of the animal might solidify, killing it.
  • Consequently, the clotting of blood must be tightly controlled so that the clot forms only when and where it is required (2003, pp. 78-79).
  • Behe then goes into painstaking detail to record the biochemical cascade that must transpire in order for blood clotting to occur.
  • For over fifteen pages he records all of the events that are required in order for this process to occur (see pages 81-97).
  • Figure 4-3 of his book shows a flowchart of the proteins involved in the blood coagulation cascade.
  • Aside from there being dozens of proteins required, many are produced in response to complex feedback loops within the cascade itself.

Only God could create such a complex system that can heal itself so precisely.

 

Conclusion

………………………………………

As you can see, this is all remarkably complex.

Anyone who thinks that this all happened by chance has remarkable faith in chance!

………………. 

Why circumcision on the 8th day?

“He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations” genesis 17:12

  • Medical scientists have been examining the biological processes that lead to blood clotting. 
  • Two different blood clotting factors, vitamin k and prothrombin, are at the highest levels of your life (110% of normal) on the eighth day of life.
  • These blood clotting agents facilitate rapid healing and greatly reduce the chance of infection.
  • You can verify with any obstetrician that the 8th day of life is the ideal time for a circumcision, and that any circumcision done earlier requires an injection of vitamin k supplement.
  • Since god designed the whole clotting process in the human blood, of course he also designed the rising vitamin k and prothrombin on the eighth day of life.
  • God revealed this information in the bible. “he who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations” genesis 17:12

……………….

General discussion about healing

It seems to be an incorrectly held opinion that the human body heals itself, sometimes with the help of the medical profession!

This view is entirely incorrect.

The human body has an inbuilt mechanism to prevent bleeding from a cut. This mechanism is so incredibly complicated that it could not possibly have evolved by chance.

This leads us to a general discussion about healing, and the nature of god.

In fact god is responsible for all healing in our bodies, whether the medical profession are involved or not!

We are surrounded by invading bacteria, viruses, and fungi, which would kill us instantly if our immune system was not constantly active.

Impact we rarely get ill, because our immune system works so well.

When we do get ill, or break a bone, it is actually god’s healing system that causes the healing!

It is quite wrong for any medical practitioner to claim any credit for any general healing process.

I am not being intentionally rude about the medical profession. Here is a good example.

Last year I was involved in a serious road traffic accident and sustained 11 fractures.

I was fortunate in that i had an excellent surgeon who inserted down the shaft of my right tibia, which was broken in two places.

The titanium rod effectively realigned the fractures, so that the bone healing processes could proceed with maximum efficiency.

Bone cells include osteoblasts and osteoclasts, which, with many other cells, have repaired my fractured leg over a period of many months.

The repair process was programmed by God into the bone cells of my leg, so that, in the event of a fracture, the bone would repair itself.

This same is true of most other repair processes in the human body.

A corneal abrasion is a scratch over the delicate skin of the eye. It is very painful, but usually repairs itself very quickly.

A cut finger will normally heal within a few days, and we hardly think about the complicated process involved in this healing process.

As I have tried to explain, the whole clotting process is incredibly complex, and could not possibly have evolved by chance! 

……………

Healing scriptures

Here are some Healing Scriptures from the Bible:

Psalm 103:2-5
Bless the Lord, o my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,

 Psalm 30:2
Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you healed me.

 Exodus 15:26
“I am the lord who heals you.” 

Psalm 34:19
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

 Isaiah 53:45
By His stripes we are healed.

 Psalm 30:2
O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you healed me.

Psalm 107:20
He sent forth His word and healed them

Psalm 147:3
He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.

……………

Matthew 15:30
Then great multitudes came to him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and he healed them.

 Mark 16:17-18
And these signs will follow those who believe: they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

 James 5:14-15
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the lord will raise him up.

3 john 1:2
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this teaching and associated YouTube videos

 God bless you!

Richard

 Dr Richard Kent

 www.drrichardkent.org

 

If you have any comments or questions, please send an e-mail to:
[email protected]

 

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