Cardiovascular System – Love your heart because it pumps only for you!
As you breathe, as your blood circulates, as your heart pumps your cardiovascular system continues to function. Just like how oxygen and the lungs (respiratory system) is essential for our bodies to work, the heart and blood vessels are the components of the cardiovascular system. As your heart pumps blood, your blood vessels channels and transports it all throughout your body. Your heart is the motherboard of your body because it supplies your body with blood, oxygen and other vital nutrients needed for sustenance of life. Just of it this way, if we were heartless, we wouldn’t be alive right now. That’s how important your heart system really is.
On average, our heart weighs an estimate of six to eleven ounces and beats 60-100 beats per minute. It varies from the person’s age because infants and toddlers may have faster heart beats than that of adults because of the need of their immature organs for blood and oxygen. Our heart pumps an astonishing 2,000 gallons all throughout the day. That’s enough to fill a small-sized kiddie pool. The healthier your heart system is, the lower the resting heart will be.
Your cardiovascular system is affected by various factors such as your physical environment, physical activities, emotions and other factors. Keeping your heart healthy is the way to go and the way to prevent cardiovascular system problems! It’s actually easier said than done, because as we age, we encounter vices and become less active because of our busy lifestyles. So as we proceed in our journey about learning the pointers in keeping our heart system in optimum shape, let’s start with the question, “How does the cardiovascular system work?”
As said previously, our heart is the core muscle in the cardiovascular system. Yes, the heart is a muscle and is quite a strong muscle indeed. To see how big your heart is, create a fist with your hand, that’s approximately how large your heart is. This system’s key responsibility is the transportation of blood to different sections of our body. The heart has three major layers. The strongest of the three is called “myocardium”. This helps in the contraction in the pumping action of heart to propel blood. The thin part of the heart which comprises of the outermost part of heart is called “epicardium.” While the innermost layer, called “endocardium” is the thin and smooth segment of the heart.
As blood gets transported all throughout this vital system, our cells also receive essential nutrients and oxygen to help them do their part for our body. The heart acts as a pump which forces blood to move all throughout the body and eventually relaxing to receive blood into its chambers. The heart contracts more than 100,000 times a day. Blood is transported that holds nutrients into the digestive system and carries oxygen to the lungs. The waste products of the blood are brought to the kidneys for excretion and carbon dioxide is expelled by the lungs.
The heart is divided into four main chambers. We have the right and left atriums and the right and left ventricles. In medical books and diagrams, when you try to understand on how the heart system works, it can get too complicated because of the many passage ways that it has. But it isn’t that complicated once explained in a simple explanation. At first, the blood enters the right atrium and as the heart contracts the blood then proceeds through a valve called the “tricuspid valve” from the right atrium to the right ventricle. After, it then flows through another valve into the lungs. This is the place in the cardiovascular system where the blood receives the oxygen. The blood then advances to the left atrium and through the “mitral valve” into the left ventricle and then goes to the aorta. The aorta is the main artery in the body and is also the largest artery in our whole body. It acts as the central supply source of oxygenated blood through the day and plays the largest role in the system’s circulation. When the blood leaves the aorta, the blood then circulates throughout the whole body.
Since you have been provided with how the heart works, can you imagine how crucial your cardiovascular system’s health is?
Making sure that it is at optimum condition is really something to focus on. When problems start in this system, a person can suffer from many cardiovascular diseases that can affect even the other organs. A surprising number of diseases concerning the heart can cause seriously health problems for a person. Even causing cardiac arrest and causing death to a person. Some conditions are inborn; meaning that from birth the child has attained the congenital heart disease and could develop gradually if the person doesn’t do the right measures to control their condition.
Natural remedies could definitely help out our cardiovascular system during the unserious and early stages for this system. Since our heart system is a little more complicated and is considered a little more serious than other systems, we should always take safe measures for its well-being. Natural remedies could be tried out for heart disease prevention; this means that it is for avoidance of being affected by heart system conditions. There are also certain diets that a person could follow if they do already have heart disease. It is a diet that is low in salt, fat, cholesterol that could help out in preventing the worsening of the condition.
Taking care of this system is vital to the optimal functioning of your entire body. The best way to stay away from heart disease is living a healthy lifestyle.
- This means exercising regularly, at least 3 times a week so that your heart can reach its target heartbeat.
- Eat colourful and low-fat meals and try to stay away from sweets, fried fast food restaurants. Keep it colourful and green.
- Focus on eating lean meat, chicken and fish that are boiled and steamed instead of fried.
- Have a good night’s sleep every night, a range of at least 8 hours a day.
- Reduce stress as much as possible because this could elevate certain hormones in the body. When you are stressed you don’t realize that you aren’t getting enough sleep, you’re starting to eat greasy and fatty foods and you aren’t concentrating on your body’s needed balance.
- Take Omega-3 supplements because it does your heart good. Omega-3 fish oil could possibly lower down your triglyceride levels to a healthy level.
Do your cardiovascular system a big favor and keep it pumping healthy. Do all necessary means to keep it from giving in into heart disease. Loving your heart is the number one favor that you can do for your heart and your entire well-being. Love your heart because it works hard for you!