Our Amazing Bodies
Here on the Amazing Bodies page, our School Nurse Kiera Heasly shares an amazing fact about the human body.
Did You Know?
Your heart is approximately the size of your fist, and it can pump enough blood to fill a swimming pool over the course of a year.
The Heart:
Is the super-efficient pump of your body. It has four muscular chambers: Two Atria at the top and two Ventricles at the bottom separated by special valves that ensure blood only flows in one direction. A thick wall of muscle called the Septum separates the heart down the middle into two halves.
How does your heart work?
The heart relies on its own specialised electrical system which helps control the rate and rhythm of your heartbeat. So, how does the blood flow through the heart?
The first chamber, the Right Atrium takes in blood that’s low in oxygen that has already been used up in the cells around your body. This blood then flows through the Tricuspid Valve filling the Right Ventricle.
At precisely the right moment the Right Ventricle gets to work and contracts sending the oxygen depleted blood to your lungs to collect fresh oxygen.
After a gas exchange process in the lungs takes place, the Left Atrium receives the oxygen rich blood back from the lungs before flowing through the Mitral Valve and filling the Left Ventricle.
The Left Ventricle’s job is to give another strong pump delivering oxygen and nutrient rich blood throughout your entire body.
Whilst the ventricles are contracting and ejecting blood out to the body, the atria are relaxed refilling and getting ready for their next contractions. The Atria and Ventricles continue this process working as a team 24 hours a day, with the average adult heart beating 60-100 times per minute!
Reference:
https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/heart.html
Kiera Heasly
ENPS School Nurse
Kiera Heasly,
School Nurse
Kiera Heasly,
School Nurse