The heart is an astoundingly faithful creation of nature. Its gentle thumping accompanies us for the duration of our lives, and it is so central to human existence that for much of recorded history, it has served as a symbol of not only life but also love, emotion, intelligence, and reason. At one time, philosophers even believed that the heart, rather than the brain, was the organ of consciousness.Aristotle himself considered it the organ of vitality, and still today the heart is emblematic of the humansoul.
A colored angiogram showing in fine detail the coronary arteries of the heart. (SPL/Photo Researchers, Inc.)
The defining characteristic of the human heart is its tireless beating, a constant rhythmic contraction to life that serves the all-important purpose of circulating blood through our bodies. Each heartbeat pushes blood along a one-way path, through increasingly narrow arteries leading away from the heart, across the intricate networks of capillary beds in tissues, and into increasingly wide veins that eventually return the blood to the heart.
In the average adult at rest, blood completes a full circuit around the body—from the heart and back again—in just one minute. During that time, oxygen and nutrients are delivered to tissues, in exchange for waste products such as carbon dioxide, which are picked up for removal from the body. This exchange process is constant, with freshly oxygenated blood coursing continuously into tissues, deoxygenated blood being pushed away, nutrients being absorbed from the digestive tract, and waste products being filtered out by the renal and hepatic circulation.
Cross-section of the human heart. (Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.)
The machine-like pumping of the heart is made possible by the organ’s muscular structure and mechanism of electrical stimulation. Weighing approximately 300 grams in the typical adult human, the main mass of the heart is almost exclusively muscle. Electrical impulses generated by the sinoatrial (SA) node, a bundle of nerve cells embedded in the muscle of the right atrium, stimulate the muscles of both the right and left atria (or upper chambers of the heart) to contract, thereby pushing blood into the ventricles (or lower chambers).
The wave of neuronal excitation created by the SA node passes to the atrioventricular (AV) node, which lies between the atria and ventricles. Once stimulated, the AV node fires off a contractile signal to the ventricular muscles. The ventricles then force blood away from the heart, with blood exiting via either the pulmonary artery, which runs from the right ventricle to the lungs, or the aorta, which extends from the left ventricle and connects to arteries leading to the various other parts of the body.
Electrocardiogram showing the deflections that reflect the alternate contractions of the atria and the ventricles of the heart during one heartbeat. (Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.)
The famous “lub-dub” sound of the beating heart is a function of the different heart valves. The “lub” is created by the closing of valves between the atria and ventricles, and the “dub” by the closing of valves between the ventricles and the pulmonary artery and aorta. The valves ensure that blood flows in a single direction through the heart, and because there is a slight (~0.1 second) delay after the SA node fires and before the AV node is stimulated, each chamber is able to empty completely before becoming closed off. In addition, for brief periods of time, the cells of the SA and AV nodes are insensitive, or refractory, to incoming electrical signals. These changes in potential for stimulation, during which charged ions are passing into or out of cells to reestablish resting voltages, give the heartbeat its regularity.
The coupling of electrical timing with muscular contraction is simultaneously powerful and intricate. But the intimacy of these processes with the body’s circulation means that even the slightest defect in function can have severe consequences on overall health. In the United States, heart disease is a leading cause of preventable death. But through a healthy diet and adequate exercise, the heart can continue to effect life and maintain its status as symbol of life, love, and vitality.
No comments:
Post a Comment