by Lady Carla Davis, MPH
© 2019 Lady Carla Davis - www.NourishingBasics.com
The heart circulates blood through two pathways: the pulmonary circuit and the systemic circuit. The pulmonary circuit carries deoxygenated blood, which leaves the right ventricle of the heart via the pulmonary artery to travel to the lungs. Oxygenated blood is then returned to the left atrium of the heart via the pulmonary vein. The systemic circuit, carries oxygenated blood via the left ventricle to the aorta where it enters the arteries and capillaries to supply the body’s tissues with oxygen.
Deoxygenated blood returns via the veins to the venae cavae, re-entering the heart’s right atrium.
After the blood leaves the heart through the aortic vale, two sets of arteries bring oxygenated blood to feed the heart muscle. They are the left main coronary artery on one side of the aorta, which branches into the left anterior descending artery and the left circumflex artery, and the right coronary artery, which branches out on the right side of the aorta.
An adult male heart weighs about 10-12 ounces/280-340 grams and is about 25 percent larger than a woman’s heart, which weighs about 8-10 ounces/230-280 grams. The female heart pumps about 6 beats faster per minute than a male heart. A normal heart is about the size of your fist. An enlarged heart, called cardiomegaly, can be an indication of:
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Cardiomegaly can lead to cardiac arrest and sudden death (common with athletes), heart failure, heart murmurs, or blood clots, depending on the part of the heart enlarged.
Your stupendous heart works 24/7, from the time you are conceived in your mother’s womb, to the time you die. It pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood, 100,000 times a day (about 2.5 billion times in the average lifetime) to bring nutrients and oxygen to your body’s organs.