The Magnificently Complex Organ
The human body is a complex organism, meaning it has pretty high demands.There are a lot of organs and tissues that need to function. Like neurons located in the brain that look like lighting bolts and islets of Langerhans in the pancreas that are your typical spherical animal cell. All of these cells need to have a blood exchange every second, otherwise all of these cells will die. There is only one organ in the body that can handle this job and that is the human heart.
The human heart is a complicated organ and it has manying moving parts that are capable of maintaining human life. The human body has allowed us to see the heart’s importance based on its location. The heart is located in the center of the thoracic cavity mainly in line with the sternum, and it sits in between between the two lungs .The thoracic cavity can also be thought of as the chest Inside this cavity sits the heart it is twisted a bit, so it is facing more to the left. This slight twist is the reason the right lung has three lobes, while the left lobe only has two because the heart takes up that space.
Now the apex of the heart is where the left most portion of the heart would be located, which would be aligned parallel to the sternum. Lining the the thoracic cavity is a thin sheet like membrane called the pleura. Now the pleura, ribs, and sternum show us just how important the heart is. It is such a vital organ that incase of injure it needs extra forms of protection or armour. There is solid calcified bone in front of this heart, not just some soft fatty tissue.
The internal mechanisms of the heart are very quick and efficient, which is thanks to the complicated organ itself. Now the human heart can be split into four different chambers, or quadrants . In the top left on paper you have the right atrium, below that is the right ventricle. Then on the top right on paper you have the left atrium, and directly below that is the left ventricle. These orientations looked flipped because they are referring to those location if they were in a patient’s body.
Your right atrium is on your right side of the body. The ventricles are substantially larger than the atria, since blood flows from atria to ventricles. This means that it is the ventricles jobs to generate enough power to send the blood surging through arteries and veins. They are responsible for creating enough power to keep the blood flowing throughout the entire body. To help these ventricles there are valves placed throughout the arteries, veins, and heart to prevent backflow of blood. The two most important valves are located in the heart.
The tricuspid valve is located after the right atrium and before the right ventricle. It has three leaflets or flaps of tissue giving the value an open triangle shape. Now the mitral valve or bicuspid valve is located after the left atrium and before the left ventricle. It has two leaflets and has the appearance of an open eye when the valve is open. Now there is a lot that can go wrong with the human heart, and thanks to evolution, biology created a lot of fail safes. Valves were put in to place to prevent back flowing of blood in to the atrium.
The ventricles were made larger since they have to pump blood harder. The human heart clearly has an important purpose. People are revived if it stops for just a few seconds. If the heart could not do its job quickly or efficiently then its job not worth doing. For example it wouldn’t be able to pump blood correctly if the ventricles are not large enough. Blood flow would stop all together with the lack of valves in and around the heart.
All this evolution had to occur over many years to get this beautifully complex heart we have today. This heart is so complex and delicate that it needs to be protected. Even so it has maintained human lives successfully. Bibliography: Admin. “Diagram Of The Human Heart And Chest Anatomical Heart In Chest Diagram – Anatomy Body System.” Human Body Pictures, Human Body Pictures, 2 Feb.
2018. Admin. “Internal Heart Labeling Anatomy Structure Of The Heart Labeled Anatomy Heart Diagram Choice Image.” Labeled Of Anatomy, Labeled Of Anatomy, 6 May 2018. Roberts, Alice M. The Complete Human Body: the Definitive Visual Guide.
DK Publishing, 2016.
