The heart It is an organ located in the thorax, supported on the diaphragm muscle, it constitutes the most important structure of the circulatory system, since it acts as a pump that drives the blood throughout the body, allowing oxygen and nutrients to reach the different organs and tissues.
The heart begins to beat long before birth, from the fourth week of intrauterine life, from that moment it beats continuously about 80 to 100 times per minute throughout life and until the moment of death. It is estimated that each day our heart beats about 100,000 times, which is about 8,000 liters of blood.
Structure of the heart
It is mainly made up of cooked muscle fibers such as heart muscle, which are of a particular type that is only found in the heart, these fibers make up the myocardium. On the outside, the heart is lined by a membrane that separates it from the other structures of the thorax, it is the pericardium. Inside it is covered by a layer known as the endocardium that is intended to provide a smooth surface to prevent turbulence and the formation of blood clots.
The heart also needs to receive oxygen and nutrients so it has its own circulatory system made up of the coronary arteries.
In order to fulfill its function as a pump, its interior consists of four cavities and a complex system of valves, which limit the direction of the blood flow. This reaches the heart through the veins and leaves it through the arteries.
How does the heart work?
The heart contains a special type of nervous system, which is responsible for its normal functioning. The stimulus that causes the contractions of the heart originates in a structure called the sinus node, which is nothing more than a natural pacemaker that is located in the right atrium. Each time it is activated it originates an electrical impulse that travels through the atria causing them to contract with what the blood passes to the ventricles, so that this can occur the electrical impulse is stopped for fractions of seconds in a second node called atrioventricular before to pass to the ventricles.
Blood from all over the body reaches the right part of the heart, specifically the right atrium, through the vena cavae, which are two, the upper and the lower. Once there, it is propelled into the right ventricle from where it passes to the lungs through the pulmonary artery. In the lungs, the blood is stripped of the carbon dioxide that it brings from the tissues and is oxygenated again, being returned back to the heart by the pulmonary veins that reach the left atrium, from there the blood passes to the left ventricle that drives it towards the aortic artery to be distributed throughout the body.
This process is carried out in two phases, the blood that reaches the atria passes to the ventricles during the relaxation phase or diastole, then the valves located between each atrium and the corresponding ventricle close and the ventricle contracts with which the blood passes to the arteries, a phenomenon known as systole. This process is carried out continuously, causing cardiac output, or volume of blood that leaves the heart, in turn, each impulse of blood that reaches the arteries is capable of distending them, thus giving rise to the pulse.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide
The heart is the seat of a serious disease that has been and continues to be the leading cause of death worldwide, it is the coronary heart disease, a disorder in which the arteries that carry blood to the heart muscle become clogged by the deposit of cholesterol plaques, which causes the dreaded heart attacks to occur.
This disease is the product of factors that can be modified if there is a will to avoid them, for which it is necessary to lead a healthy lifestyle that includes eating more fiber and vegetables and fewer refined products, reducing sugar consumption, quitting smoking and carry out aerobic physical activity on a regular basis.
Social perspective of the term
The place in which people's internal feelings, desires and passions are usually lodged it is called the heart. I followed what my heart dictated and that is why I decided to return with Juan.
Also, when center or interior of a thing is called heart. The heart of a fruit is the richest.
To the third finger of the five that make up the hand and which is the longest it is popularly called the heart.
And many, many people use the word as a affectionate appellation.
Photos: iStock - AlexeyPushkin and snegok13 / wildpixel / SomkiatFakmee
