The spleen is an organ found in close proximity to our stomach and it not only stores blood in our body, but it also breaks down the red blood cells. Now, recall that some factors that increase the rate of production of red blood cells in our body are exercise, exposure to high altitude hemolytic diseases, damage to the bone marrow, low hemoglobin concentration of content in our blood. And all these things not only lead to the increase in production of red blood cells, but because we also produce more red blood cells, that implies we also have to break down more red blood cells as a result. So these also can increase the rate of destruction of these red blood cells. So let's focus, let's discuss on how and where these red blood cells are actually broken down and what recycled components are formed as a result. Now, red blood cells can generally live up to 120 days before they are damaged to the point where they must be recycled in our spleen, in our liver, or in our lymph nodes.