The human heart is one of the most important organs in our body. Located in the left side of the chest cavity, it is about the size of a large fist, weighs 8-10 oz in women and 10-12 oz in men, beats 100,000 times a day, pumps the equivalent of 5,000 gallons of blood through the body. The function of the heart is circulate the blood in the body supplying nutrients and oxygen to tissues and cells throughout the body, and |
The heart is made up of four chambers - right atria, left atria, right ventricle, left ventricle. The atria are the upper chambers and the ventricles are the lower chambers. The left and right sides of the heart are divided by a wall of muscle. The right chambers and left chambers work together as the right heart and left heart.
The heart pumps blood through two systems - the pulmonary circuit and the systemic circuit. Deoxygenated blood gets pumped through the right ventricle going to the lungs where it is oxygenated. It returns to the heart via the left atrium. This is the pulmonary circuit. From the left atrium, the oxygenated blood leaves the heart through the left ventricle and is pumped out into the body supplying oxygen and nutrients to cells and removing toxins and carbon dioxide buildup. It returns to the heart through the right ventricle. This is the systemic circuit. The right side works with the deoxygenated blood and the oxygenated blood is handled by the left side of the heart.