The story of our heart

The story of our heart:

It’s the only part of us that we think of as being synonymous with life. If it stops working, we die. It’s also the only part of us that we say we can give to someone else. And if someone break it, it’s the worst feeling in the universe. You can’t talk about either love or life without mentioning  about the heart, and the story of this incredible organ,which is pumping in your chest right now is an epic saga.

The Structure of the human heart:

The heart is a specialised muscle that work as a pump. This pump is divided into four chambers, two called atria and two called ventricles, connected by tiny doors called valves. The 4 chambers of the heart work together to keep the blood flowing around the body in a circle with a detour to the lungs to purify the blood by removing carbon dioxide(co2) from it and adding oxygen(O2) to it.

The working of our heart:

Veins carry the deoxygenated blood to the right atrium, which is one of the first of the four chambers. Two-fifths of the oxygen(O2)by then is used up and it is on its way back to the lungs to pick up a fresh supply and to give up the carbon dioxide(co2) it has. When the blood reaches to the right ventricle, it contracts and pushes the blood through the pulmonary artery, which goes to the lungs. In the lungs the blood releases its carbon dioxide and picks up fresh oxygen. Then it goes to the third chamber, the left atrium. When this chamber get filled, it forces the oxygenated blood through the mitral valve to the left ventricle. From here it is pushed into a big blood vessel called aorta, the main artery, and sent round the body through the various arteries.

Causes of heart diseases:

Heart diseases can occur from any damage to the heart muscles, the valves or the 'natural pacemaker' of the heart.
Electrical impulses, those are generated by the heart muscle cause our heart to beat (contract). This electrical signal started from the sino-atrial (SA) node, located at the top of the heart's upper-right chamber (the right atrium). The SA node is often called the heart's 'natural pacemaker'.

If somehow the muscles get damaged, then our heart will be unable to pump properly. If the valves of heart get damaged somehow,then blood cannot flow normally and easily from one chamber to other, and if the pacemaker get defective, the contractions of the chambers will get uncontrolled. Which will results in malfunctioning of the heart, which can also leads to death. 

History of open heart surgery:

Until the 20th century, few doctors dared to perform any type of surgeries on the heart. In 1953 all this changed. After twenty years of work, Dr John Gibbon, a famous surgeon from USA had developed a machine, which could take over temporarily from the heart and lungs. Blood could be routed through this machine. This machine enables bypassing the heart so that surgeons could work inside it and also see what they were doing. The era of open heart surgery had begun.

In the operation theatre, it gives surgeons the power to repair or replace a defective heart. Many patients have had plastic valves inserted in their hearts when their own heart was faulty. Many patients are being kept alive with small batteries
operated pacemakers. none of these success could have been achieved without the heart-lung machine. But valuable as it is to the surgeons, the heart-lung machine has some limitations. It can be operated only for few hours at a time because its pumping gradually damages the red bloods cells present in blood. 

Importance of our heart:

The work of the heart can never be compromised. The reason is that the heart's job is to keep oxygen(O2) rich blood

flowing all over the body. Each and every cell of our body need a constant supply of oxygen(O2), especially those in the brain. The brain cells live only for four to five minutes after their oxygen is cut off, and then brain death occurs, leading to the
entire body dying.

How can we make our heart healthy:

If we want to improve our heart's health first we need to monitor what food we are eating. We have to reduce oil content in our diet and we should go for mainly vegetables and fruits. 

We should also avoid junk food,red meat,smoking and alcohol. By avoiding all these bad stuff our life will become better.

We need to exercise at least for half an hour to one hour everyday to keep our heart healthy. if you feel stressed you can go for yoga and meditation which will definitely help you to be calm and relax your body. 

This was the whole story of our heart from it's working mechanism to it's failure, curing and everything. Hope you enjoyed reading...