Body fluid

Body fluid, bodily fluids, or biofluids are liquids originating from inside the bodies of living people. They include fluids that are excreted or secreted from the body as well as body water that normally is not.

The dominating content of body fluids is body water. Approximately 60-65% of body water is contained within the cells (in intracellular fluid) with the other 35-40% of body water contained outside the cells (in extracellular fluid). This fluid component outside of the cells include the fluid between the cells (interstitial fluid), lymph and blood. There are approximately 6 to 10 liters of lymph in the body, compared to 3.5 to 5 liters of blood.

Body fluids include:

3

Body fluids and health

Body fluid is the term most often used in medical and health contexts. Modern medical, public health, and personal hygiene practices treat body fluids as potentially unclean. This is because they can be vectors for infectious diseases, such as sexually transmitted diseases or blood-borne diseases. Universal precautions and safer sex practices try to avoid exchanges of body fluids. Body fluids can be analysed in medical laboratory in order to find microbes, inflammation, cancers, etc.

Sampling

Methods of sampling of body fluids include:

• Blood sampling for any blood test, in turn including:
  • Arterial blood sampling, such as radial artery puncture
  • Venous blood sampling, also called venipuncture
• Lumbar puncture to sample cerebrospinal fluid
• Thoracocentesis to sample pleural fluid
• Amniocentesis to sample amniotic fluid

Bodily fluids in religion and history

Many bodily fluids are regarded with varying levels of disgust among world cultures, including the Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Islam, Judaism) and Hinduism.

Body fluids in art

A relatively new trend in contemporary art is to use body fluids in art, though there have been rarer uses of blood (and perhaps feces) for quite some time, and Marcel Duchamp used semen decades ago. Examples include:

• The controversial Piss Christ (1987), by Andres Serrano, which is a photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine;
• Self (1991, recast 1996) by Marc Quinn, a frozen cast of the artist's head made entirely of his own blood;
• Piss Flowers, by Helen Chadwick (1991-92), are twelve white-enameled bronzes cast from cavities made by urinating in snow (though this might not be characterized as the use of bodily fluids in art, just their use in preparation);
• performances by Lennie Lee involving feces, blood, vomit from 1990
• many paintings by Chris Ofili, which make use of elephant dung (from 1992).
• Gilbert and George's The Naked Shit Pictures (1995)
• Hermann Nitsch and Das Orgien Mysterien Theatre use urine, feces, blood and more in their ritual performances.
• Franko B from 1990 blood letting performances.
• The cover of the Metallica's album Load is an original artwork entitled "Semen and Blood III", one of three photographic studies by Andres Serrano created in 1990 by mingling the artist's own semen and bovine blood between two sheets of Plexiglas.

Body fluids in forensic science

The term body fluid is used in a forensic science context to refer to items of biological evidence. The term is a historical one whose meaning has been expanded due to the discovery of the evidential significance of various biological materials. Body fluid therefore refers to not only to typical body liquids such as blood or semen, but to any item of trace evidence with a biological origin, including hair, bone, teeth, faeces and skin or muscle tissue.

References to Bodily Fluids in Popular Culture

• In the film Dr. Strangelove, Sterling Hayden's character, General Jack D. Ripper, makes multiple references to 'bodily fluids' and his belief that they are being contaminated by communists via water fluoridation.

See also

• Clinical pathology
• Hygiene
• Ritual cleanliness
• Blood-borne diseases
• Fluid bonding, unprotected sex in long-term relationships

References

• Paul Spinrad. (1999) The RE/Search Guide to Bodily Fluids. Juno Books. ISBN 1-890451-04-5
• John Bourke. (1891) Scatologic Rites of All Nations. Washington, D.C.: W.H. Lowdermilk.