Hello, readers, my first blog post will be about the anatomy of the heart. This is something I learned in my Foundations of Kinesiology lecture. The professor, Dr. Pontifax, spent a few periods on this subject. He went over everything from the structure of the heart to how it beats. However, I will be sharing only the basics with you, specifically, the circulation of the blood flow.
To begin, the heart is a pump for the body whose main function is to pump oxygenated blood through the body. The heart is the size of a fist and is the hardest working organ in the body. The heart is located in the center of the chest between the lungs. The heart has four chambers. It is divided into a left and right side by a septum, and both sides are divided into an atrium and a ventricle. The two atria act as collecting reservoirs, while the two ventricles act as pumps. The right ventricle pumps blood to the lungs, while the left ventricle pumps blood to the rest of the body. The process of the chambers contracting is simultaneous. The atria will contract first and after a slight delay, the ventricles will contract. Blood is first drained into the atria via the veins. The ventricles pump the blood and send it to the rest of the body via the arteries. Blood that is collected in the right atrium will be drained into the right ventricle through the tricuspid valve. Valves in the heart work to prevent the blood from flowing back into the atrium. The blood then enters the right ventricle and contracts, pumping the blood through the pulmonary valve and through the arteries to the lungs. Once the blood receives oxygen from the lungs, the blood is sent back to the heart through the veins into the left atrium. The left atrium drains the blood into the right ventricle through the bicuspid valve. The left ventricle contracts, pumping the blood through the aortic valve and through the arteries to the rest of the body. This is the basics on how the heart circulates the blood throughout our body. Below is a short video that shows the heart in action.
I found these lectures to be particularly interesting. The body is a very complex thing to learn about. Particularly when learning about one of its most vital organs, like the heart. What I found most interesting about the heart was how the blood flows through it. It's a complex system that has been carefully engineered over many years through evolution that now seems so simple. It's amazing how everything in our body comes together so perfectly. It really is a well-structured machine. I wonder how our cardiac anatomy differs from the anatomy of other species? Perhaps this is a topic for my next blog post.
References
"Anatomy Of The Heart - Texas Heart Institute Heart
Information Center". Texasheart.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
"Circulatory System 3D". YouTube. N.p., 2017. Web.
29 Jan. 2017.
"MSU - KIN173 - Foundations Of Kinesiology - Spring
2017". Education.msu.edu. N.p., 2017. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.
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