• Question: how does our heart work ?

    Asked by Brie mode fearless to Theresia, Andy, Duane, Giovanna, Katie on 11 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by Hansypansy.
    • Photo: Theresia Mina

      Theresia Mina answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      Hello!

      I will try to provide a brief explanation here, hope this helps!

      Our heart has 4 chambers, 2 for “fresh” (oxygenated) blood and the other 2 for “saturated” (deoxygenated/ oxygen deficient) blood. Each chamber pair is separated by the valve to ensure singular direction of blood flow. The heart’s beating is like a pump, it pushes the blood to the next destination depending which chamber we look at. In principle, saturated blood is pooled to one of the top chamber, then that gets pumped to the bottom chamber, and then to the lung to be “refreshed”. The motion of the 2 chambers ensure better efficiency. Next, the fresh blood enter another top chamber, and then goes to the bottom chamber and finally with the strongest pump the blood is pushed to our aorta… and off to the rest of the body!

    • Photo: Duane Mellor

      Duane Mellor answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Not much I can add to Theresia’s great answer, except I find it amazing that the heart contains tissue which helps to control its beating, it’s own pace maker as well as our nervous system which also controls it.
      That’s why a heart that’s been removed will keep beating for a while until it runs out of oxygen.

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