The Ins and Outs of the Heart

When most peeps think of the word "heart" they think of love, romance and all that
mushy stuff. Those things are great and all, but let's also give your heart props for
what it really is - an amazingly powerful life-sustaining organ.

Pump Up the Oxygen

To put it simply, your heart is a pump. Much like that gizmo in your fish tank, your heart
moves liquid from one place to another. In the process, the heart re-oxygenates the
blood moving through it with the oxygen you breathe in. This is an essential process
cuz your blood supplies oxygen to your entire body. If you don't get oxygen for more
than a few minutes, you'll die.

Basic Anatomy

Your heart is a cone-shaped muscle in the middle of your chest, right between your
lungs. The average adult heart weighs between 9 - 10.5 ounces (255 - 298 grams) and
it pumps about 1,900 gallons (7,200 liters) of blood every day. The heart has three
layers: the endocardium (outside layer), the myocardium (middle layer) and the
pericardium (the fluid sack that surrounds the heart). The heart is also divided up into
four chambers, which each have a valve that allows blood to flow in, but prevents blood
from flowing backwards.

In Action

The heart squeezes blood out and into the rest of the circulatory system when it
contracts. When it expands, it sucks in poorly oxygenated blood and pushes through the
chambers and into the pulmonary artery, where it is re-oxygenated. Then the blood
makes its way out of the heart via the aorta and back into the body where it provides
your cells with oxygen.

Did U Know?

 In the average person's life, their heart will beat 2.5 billion times.
 Heart disease is the leading cause of death in North America. More than 2,000
Americans die from heart disease everyday.
 Your heart is about the size of your fist.
How The Lungs Work
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Your lungs can breathe in and out as much as 36,000 times a day without you even having to think about it.
Isn't it about time you reflected on all the hard work they do? We take a closer look at the inner workings of
your lungs.

How Lungs Work - A Little Gas Goes a Long

Way
Very simply, the function of the lungs is to absorb oxygen, a gas that your body needs to function, and expel
carbon dioxide, a "waste gas" that your body can't use (no, not that kind of waste gas!). But nothing is ever
as simple as it sounds. When you breathe in, your diaphragm and other muscles expand to allow room for your
lungs to fill. The low air pressure in your empty lungs creates a vacuum that sucks air in from the higher-
pressure environment. The air flows from your nose and mouth, through your trachea (windpipe) and into
your lungs.

How Lungs Work - The Big Trade Off

Once the air reaches the lungs, it flows into increasingly narrow bronchioles (small airways that extend into
the lobes of the lungs) until it reaches the alveoli (tiny, thin-walled sacks). Once in the alveoli, the oxygen in the
air passes through the thin membrane walls and into the pulmonary capillary. From there, the oxygen binds to
the hemoglobin in red blood cells. The red blood cells give back carbon dioxide, which then goes back through
the membrane, into the alveoli, through the bronchioles, into the lungs and - woosh - is exhaled back out of
your body. The oxygen that was passed off to the red blood cells is then circulated around your body.

How Lungs Work - Did U Know?

 When removed for transplant, the lungs can survive outside the body longer than any other organ.
 The left lung is smaller than the right lung to make room for the heart.
 About 10,000 quarts (9,464 liters) of air go through your lungs every day.
 The total surface area of the alveoli is around the size of a tennis court.
 New babies at rest breathe between 40 and 50 times per minute but by the time they're five years old, their
breathing rate decreases to around 25 times per minute.

How Blood Carries Oxygen

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We all know that oxygen is the key to living. It's in the air you breathe, in your lungs and in your blood. What
you might not know is how oxygen gets into your blood and how the blood carries oxygen through your body.

Blood and Oxygen - How It Works

You breathe air in through your nose and mouth. It makes its way into your lungs and dissolves in the water
lining of the alveoli. Oxygen then clings to red blood cells as they pass through the alveolar capillaries - now the
oxygen is in the blood.

Blood and Oxygen - Types of Blood Vessels

Three types of blood vessels carry blood from your lungs to every cell in your body.

 Arteries - Arteries have muscular walls that pump oxygen-filled blood away from your heart to the tissues
and organs, like the brain, kidneys and liver. Arteries get smaller as they get further from your heart. At their
smallest point, arteries become capillaries.
 Capillaries - Capillaries are the tiniest blood vessels. They connect arteries to veins.
 Veins - Veins are what bring the "used" blood back to your heart.

Blood and Oxygen - Did U Know?

 The only part of your body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It takes in oxygen directly from
the air.
 A severe sunburn damages the blood vessels so badly that it takes four to 15 months for them to return to
their normal condition.
 The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet (nine meters) out of the body.