What is the heart?
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Dr. Mehmet Oz answered:As the symbol of love and courage, the heart is more than just inspiration for songwriters, poets, tattoo artists, and celebrity stalkers. And it's more than just a symbol for life. It is life.
Much like the water main of your anatomical house, your heart provides the nutrients you need to live. In your house, clean water lets you drink safely and wash away germs. In your body, your heart pumps blood to every room-to your brain so you can think, to your sex organs so you can procreate, to your digestive system so you can process food, to your muscles so you can help your neighbors move their piano.
And you thought this incredible organ was just a pump that went thump-thump.
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As the symbol of love and courage, the heart is more than just inspiration for songwriters, poets, tattoo artists, and celebrity stalkers. And it's more than just a symbol for life. It is life. Much like the water main of your anatomical house,... More -
Dr. William D. Knopf of Piedmont Heart Institute answered:Your heart is a muscular organ that acts like a pump to continuously send blood throughout your body.
Your heart is at the center of your circulatory system. This system consists of a network of blood vessels, such as arteries, veins, and capillaries. These blood vessels carry blood to and from all areas of your body.
An electrical system regulates your heart and uses electrical signals to contract the heart's walls. These walls are made of muscle. When the muscle is stimulated to contract, blood is pumped into the circulatory system. A system of inlet and outlet valves in your heart chambers work to ensure that blood flows in the right direction.
Your heart is vital to your health and nearly everything that goes on in your body. Without the heart's pumping action, blood can't circulate within your body.
Your blood carries the oxygen and nutrients that your organs need to work normally. Blood also carries carbon dioxide, a waste product, to your lungs to be passed out of your body and into the air.
A healthy heart supplies the areas of your body with the right amount of blood at the rate needed to work normally. If disease or injury weakens your heart, your body's organs won't receive enough blood to work normally.
This answer from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has been reviewed and/or edited by Dr. William D. Knopf.
Your heart is a muscular organ that acts like a pump to continuously send blood throughout your body. Your heart is at the center of your circulatory system. This system consists of a network of blood vessels, such as arteries, veins, and... More -
Intermountain Healthcare answered:The human heart is a pear-shaped, fist-sized body organ with muscular walls. It controls the flow of blood to every part of your body. It's located just left of center in your chest, right behind your sternum (your breastbone). The heart weighs less than a pound, but every minute or so, its strong pumping action can cycle all the blood in your body through its chambers.
The heart muscle is the strongest muscle in your body! In one day, your heart pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood. By the time you're 70 years old, your heart has pumped about 50 million gallons of blood.
How fast your heart beats depends on many factors -- your age, size, physical fitness, medications, and more. For example, a newborn baby's heart beats about 120 times per minute, while an average adult's beats only about 70 times per minute. Athletes can have resting heart rates as slow as 50 beats per minute or less.
The noise your heart makes when it beats (lub-dub) is actually the closing of valves inside the heart as each cycle of blood flows through the heart's chambers.The human heart is a pear-shaped, fist-sized body organ with muscular walls. It controls the flow of blood to every part of your body. It's located just left of center in your chest, right behind your sternum (your breastbone). The heart weighs less... More -
The heart is a large, muscular organ located just behind and to the left of your sternum (assuming you don't have a very rare condition where it is located to the right). It works to pump blood throughout your body and provide oxygen to all your organs and tissues. It has four chambers to accomplish this: One chamber accumulates the blood from the body and transfers it to the next chamber, which pumps blood to the lungs to receive oxygen; this newly oxygenated blood then returns from the lungs to another chamber, which transfers it to the final chamber before it is pumped to your body.The heart is a large, muscular organ located just behind and to the left of your sternum (assuming you don't have a very rare condition where it is located to the right). It works to pump blood throughout your body and provide oxygen to all your... More
