How does the Heart Work?

The circulatory system enables the movement of nutrients and wastes to and from the cells of our body. It helps in the maintenance of homeostasis. The circulatory system is composed of blood, the blood vessels and the heart. Heart is actually an involuntary muscle which pumps blood through the arteries and veins thus facilitating blood circulation. Heart is truly the ‘heart of our circulatory system’. How does the heart work? Here is an elaborate answer for this interesting question!

How does the Heart Work?
If you imagine the heart to be a pump, the blood vessels are the pipelines laid out all over the body. This pumping system is responsible for circulating pure blood throughout the body.

After about 21 days following conception, human heart starts beating at a rate, which is nearer to the mother’s heart rate. It is still a mystery how blood circulates in the embryo for the first 21 days when the heart has not formed.

The heart constitutes of four chambers- two atria and two ventricles. Right side of the heart collects deoxygenated blood in the right atrium. The blood flows to the lungs via the right ventricle. In the lungs the blood is oxygenized. The left heart collects the purified blood into the left atrium. From here the blood goes into the left ventricle. The left ventricle is responsible for circulating it to all the body parts. Let us see how the blood flows through the heart to all the organs of human body.

1. Blood in the right atrium enters the right ventricle through the tricuspid valve.
2. It flows to the lungs via the pulmonary artery.
3. Blood travels to the left atrium through the pulmonary vein. The vein brings in the oxygen-rich blood to the left atrium.
4. It then has to flow through the mitral valve to reach the left ventricle.
5. Through the aortic semilunar valve, blood is pumped to the aorta. The aorta forks and the blood takes its path to travel to the organs of the upper and the lower body.
6. The arteries, the arterioles and the capillaries form a network for the flow of blood to each and every cell of our body.
7. Some portion of blood goes to the kidneys. They filter out the wastes from blood before the blood treads on its way back to the heart.
8. The venules that fuse to form the veins and then the inferior and superior venae cavae are carriers of the deoxygenated blood back to the left atrium.
9. The atria and the ventricles alternately contract and relax to pump the blood to our body. When the ventricles contract, blood can flow backward into the atria. But the mitral and tricuspid valves prevent this from happening, by closing when the ventricles are full.

How does the heart work without ceasing? From where does it derive its nutrition? Blood that the heart pumps does not supply it with oxygen. Coronary arteries are special blood vessels, which are attached to the heart form outside. They render oxygen and nutrients to the heart. The right coronary artery supplies blood to the right ventricle while the left one services the rest of the heart.

Can you hear your heart beat? How does the heart beat? The sinoatral node in the right atrium of the heart generates an electrical impulse at regular intervals. It causes the atria to contract and pump blood into the ventricles. The impulse reaches the atrioventricular node from where it reaches the ventricles through the atrioventricular bundle. Ventricles contract to pump blood to the arteries. Heart then relaxes for a small period of time after which the beating begins again. The electrical system of the heart makes its beating possible. When at rest, the heart beats at the rate of 70-100 beats per minute. It makes a lub-dub sound with each beat.

Heart is one of the most wonderful organs of human body. It gives life to every cell of the body by feeding it with oxygenated and nutrition-rich blood. After knowing how the heart works, it is important to provide it with a healthy environment to work in. It’s thus so important to remain healthy and happy. Has ‘working of the heart’ won your hearts? I am sure it has!