The heart

The heart is one of the most important organs, it provides blood to every single part of our body.


It's basically a cone-shaped muscular organ that contracts and relaxes with every heartbeat (systole and diastole), making possible the flow of blood reaching every body cell to provide them with oxygen and nutrients. I like this organ because of its role, it's the first functional organ to develop and it never stops beating, since the very first beat when we are just a 3 weeks old embryo, until the last day of our lives, unfortunately.

It's located in the thoracic cavity medial to the lungs and posterior to the sternum at the level of thoracic vertebrae T5-T8. The left side of the heart is larger and stronger, because pumps oxygenated blood to all body parts, and it's usually located in the left side of our thorax. It's about the size of a closed fist, commonly 12 cm in length, 8 cm wide, and 6 cm in thickness.

A lot of illnesses and affect its normal functioning such as coronary artery disease, heart arrhythmia, heart failure, heart valve disease, even congenital diseases.
Coronary artery disease is the most common heart problem. It happens when the vessels that supplies blood to the heart have a blockage caused by atherosclerosis (plaque that grows inside of an artery), which decreases the flow of blood to the heart muscles, inhibiting oxygen.
Heart arrhythmia is when the heart has an irregular beating pattern and can be developed from other heart diseases.
Heart failure is when the heart stops pumping blood to the body.
A heart valve disease is when the heart valves, that open and close to regulate the blood flow, stop working as they should and blocked the right flow.
When people born with an abnormal heart, it is called a congenital heart disease, when the embryo's heart doesn't develop right.

So to prevent most of these diseases, it's recommended to eat healthy, make exercise regularly, checking your blood pressure and cholesterol and triglyceride levels, don't smoke, etc