Think blood is a handful of chemicals? Try more than 4,000

What's in human blood? Although we don't tend to think of blood as a vast mixing bowl, new research by a scientist at the University of Alberta and others suggests that our blood contains more than 4,000 chemical components.

"Right now a medical doctor analyzing the blood of an ailing patient looks at something like 10 to 20 chemicals," said David Wishart, a biochemist who spent three years on the analysis. "We've identified 4,229 blood chemicals that doctors can potentially look at to diagnose and treat health problems."

Doctors look at blood chemicals or metabolites in order to diagnose such conditions as diabetes and kidney failure. Wishart led more than 20 other researchers at six institutions on the analysis. He called it, "the most complete chemical characterization of blood ever done."