Human Heart:
The human heart is an organ that pumps blood throughout the body via the circulatory system, supplying
oxygen and nutrients to the tissues and removing carbon dioxide and other wastes.
The human heart has four chambers: two upper chambers (the atria) and two lower ones (the ventricles), The
heart's outer wall consists of three layers. The outermost wall layer, or epicardium, is the inner wall of the
pericardium. The middle layer, or myocardium, contains the muscle that contracts. The inner layer, or
endocardium, is the lining that contacts the blood.
Branching Blood Vessels
The heart is a pump whose walls are made of thick muscle. They can squeeze (contract) to send blood rushing
out. The blood does not spill all over the place when it leaves the heart. Instead, it flows smoothly in tubes
called blood vessels. First, the blood flows into tubes called arteries. The arteries leaving the heart are thick
tubes. But the arteries soon branch again and again to form smaller and smaller tubes. The smallest blood
vessels, called capillaries. The capillaries containing carbon dioxide return this used blood to the heart through
a different series of branching tubes: The capillaries join together to form small veins.
The Circulation of Blood
The human circulatory system is really a two-part system whose purpose is to bring oxygen-bearing blood to
all the tissues of the body. When the heart contracts it pushes the blood out into two major loops or cycles. In
the systemic loop, the blood circulates into the body’s systems, bringing oxygen to all its organs, structures
and tissues and collecting carbon dioxide waste. In the pulmonary loop, the blood circulates to and from the
lungs, to release the carbon dioxide and pick up new oxygen. The systemic cycle is controlled by the
left side of the heart, the pulmonary cycle by the right side of the heart. Let’s look at what
happens during each cycle:
The systemic loop begins when the oxygen-rich blood coming from the lungs enters the upper left chamber of
the heart, the left atrium. As the chamber fills, it presses open the mitral valve and the blood flows down into
the left ventricle. When the ventricles contract during a heartbeat, the blood on the left side is forced into
the aorta. This largest artery of the body is an inch wide. The blood leaving the aorta brings oxygen to all the
body’s cells through the network of ever smaller arteries and capillaries. The used blood from the body
returns to the heart through the network of veins. All of the blood from the body is eventually collected into
the two largest veins: the superior vena cava, which receives blood from the upper body, and the inferior
vena cava, which receives blood from the lower body region. Both venae cavae empty the blood into the right
atrium of the heart.
From here the blood begins its journey through the pulmonary cycle. From the right atrium the blood
descends into the right ventricle through the tricuspid valve. When the ventricle contracts, the blood is
pushed into the pulmonary artery that branches into two main parts: one going to the left lung, one to the
right lung. The fresh, oxygen-rich blood returns to the left atrium of the heart through the pulmonary veins .
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