Final answer:
Blood is the vital life-sustaining fluid that provides oxygen and nutrients to cells, regulates temperature, fights infections, and removes waste. Circulating through every part of the body via blood vessels, blood is essential for maintaining health and homeostasis. It also contains white blood cells for immunity, platelets for clotting, and is comprised significantly of water.
Step-by-step explanation:
The life-sustaining fluid that supplies the body's organs and cells with oxygen and nutrients, helps regulate body temperature, fights infections, and removes waste products is blood. Blood is a fluid connective tissue that circulates throughout the body, carried by an extensive network of blood vessels. As a critical component of the circulatory system, blood plays several vital roles in maintaining overall health and homeostasis.
Aside from being the major transporter of oxygen and vital nutrients to the body's cells, blood carries hormones, regulates body temperature by distributing heat, and ensures pH and osmotic pressure are stable. White blood cells in the blood help in fighting infections, while platelets and clotting factors work to prevent blood loss during injuries. Furthermore, blood plays a protective role by removing carbon dioxide and other waste products, which are byproducts of metabolic processes in the cells.
Water, being the most critical nutrient in the body, constitutes approximately 70 percent of an adult's body mass and is a major component of blood. It enables the dissolution and transportation of the body's chemicals and supports numerous life-sustaining chemical reactions. In essence, without blood, the cells of the body, particularly brain cells, would quickly perish. Therefore, blood truly is the elixir of life.