The Heart of the Matter: Understanding Your Heart

The Heart of the Matter:

Understanding Your Heart
 
We often take the most important muscle in our body completely for granted.  There’s only one muscle in our body that never stops to rest.  Your heart is an amazing pump that circulates blood throughout your body nonstop. Since we’re right on the cusp of February, American Heart Month, there’s no better time than now than to talk about keeping your heart healthy.
 
Facts About The Heart
 
Your heart is made of special muscle called cardiac muscle.  I’m astounded every time I think about this awesome muscle.  It not only has the ability to work overtime, it also has its own beat.  Did you know that if you separate one muscle cell from your heart and observe it under a microscope, you can see that it beats on its own without any external stimulation? Amazing!
 
You might think that if every cell has its own beat, the heart would not be able to keep a steady rhythm.  And that might be true except that your heart has a special section in it called a pacemaker.  This sends an electrical charge that helps to keep all the cells beating at the same time.  Think of the pacemaker as the conductor of an orchestra.  It keeps everything together.
 
Your heart actually pumps blood to two separate areas of the body.  First, it takes in blood from the body that has used up all of its oxygen.  That blood is circulated through the heart to the lungs, where it picks up more oxygen, and then back to the heart.  This blood that now has oxygen is then pumped back out into the body to supply your cells with all the oxygen and nutrients they need.
 
Without a properly functioning heart, your body isn’t supplied with everything it needed to work correctly. 
 
Sadly, many people have heart problems – and most of them can be prevented or even reduced by making changes in your health habits. That’s what this Heart of the Matter series is about.
 
How To Improve Heart Health
 
There are many ways that you can help your heart to be healthier.  The most important things are diet and exercise.  But even beyond that you need to make sure that you keep your stress levels low, get plenty of sleep, and keep harmful substances such as tobacco and illicit drugs away from your body.
 
Your heart is a very complicated organ, but taking care of it can be very simple.  You’ll need to learn about the best ways to care for your heart.  You’ll also need to make a commitment to practicing healthy habits.
 
We will discuss some of these healthy heart lifestyle habits over the next few days.
 
“I'm still not comfortable recommending that people eat saturated fat with abandon, but it's clear to me that sugar, flour and oxidized seed oils create inflammatory effects in the body that almost certainly bear most of the responsibility for elevating heart disease risk.” ~ Andrew Weil