HEART BEAT

Nestled in the chest, between the two lungs and protected by the ribs and sternum (breast bone), lies the heart. This muscular organ, about the size of your fist, collects the blood from the great veins, and after pumping it through the lungs, sends it out to all parts of the body to supply oxygen and other essential nutrients. To accomplish this task, the average heart beats about seventy times a minute or approximately 100,000 times a day, from birth until death. If it should miss from five seconds you would feel dizzy, and you would lapse into unconsciousness after ten seconds without the heart`s pumping action.

Fortunately, the beats go on with little or on conscious help from you. You do, however, need to take a care of this vital organ if you with to enjoy along and health life. Let us take a look at the heart itself, before we discuss how best to take care of it.

The heart is a muscle pump with four compartments or chambers, and four one –way valves controlling the flow of blood through these chambers. The right side of the heart, the atrium chambers, receives the blood rertuning from the body, thence it moves to the right ventricle or pumping chamber, which pumps it to the lungs. In the lungs, carbon dioxide is removed and oxygen is added to the blood. The blood then returns to the left side of the heart, is collectd in the upper left atrium chamber, flowing through to the lower, the left ventricles, and is pumped from there around the 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the rest of the body. This cycle is repeated at every beat, sending the five quarts of blood we each have around the body every minute.

Here the heart is shown within the rib cage illustrating its relative size and position.

Blood Supply To The Heart

HEART BEAT

The spontaneous rhythmical contraction of the heart muscle is modified in strength and rate by nerve impulses from the brain, as well as chemical and pressure control of the blood itself. An occasional extra beat or skipped beat is fairly common even in good healthy hearts, but if your heart does this more than five times a minute, or if it gets worse with exercise, some additional tests by your  doctor may be indicated.

EXRCISE  AND THE HEART

With strenuous exercise the heart rate increases to supply more blood and oxygen to the working muscles. A regular exercise programme causes the heart and blood vessels to become more efficient so that the resting heart rate is slower and the heart does not speed up as much for the any given amount of exercise. A trained athlete may have a pulse a slow as 45-50 beats per minute at rest, where someone in poor physical condition may have a pulse of 80 or more.

A slow pulse may occur with problems in the electrical( condition) systems – if the impulse gets blocked in this pathway from the  upper to the lower pumping chambers.If the heart stops for short rests from time to time, it may be necessary to have a pacemaker inserted into the heart to help the heart rhythm.

Fast heart beating occurs normally in response to exercise, and emotion, also in fever, blood loss, etc, but can also occur from medical problems with the elecrtical system of the heart. These can usually be controlled by medication prescribed by your doctor.

HEART SOUNDS

As the heart beats, the valves between the heart chambers open and close to control the direction of blood flow. The closure of the valves results in the heart sounds, ‘ lub-dup, lub-dup.’ With a stethoscope, a doctor can tell the condition of the valves; a narrowed valve or leaking valve, will result in a blowing sound or murmur. Sometimes a murmur will occur in a normal heart, as in a growing child. At other times the murmur may indicate congenital or rheumatic heart disease.

CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE

The heart may be deformed during its development in the second month of foetal life. The partitions between the heart chambers may be partially missing. The valves may be too small or absent, or they may leak because of abnormal formation or support.

There may be an abnormal connection between the great arteries or narrowed segments of these vessels. Any of these problems can be detected by the abnormal heart sounds or murmus they produce. Sometimes they will require surgery in the newborn or later to repair the abnormality.

RHEUMETIC HEART DISEASE

Sore throats due to infections with bacteria Streptococcus Viridans, will sometimes result in rheumatic fever in children and young people with resulting damage to the heart muscle and valves. Subsequent scarring later in life will lead to stiffness and obstruction and/ or leaking valves. The extra work load on the heart may result in heart failure. This requires medical treatment and sometimes surgery for repair or replacement of the valves.

CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE

This is now the number one cause death in the industrialized nations, with one out of every three adults dying from it! The coronary arteries supply the heart muscle with the blood and oxygen that heart needs to do its work. The fats carried by the blood may become deposited in the walls of these arteries and gradually narrow them.If they become seriously narrowed, pain or a feeling of pressure in the chest results with exercise, and is relieved by rest, or by taking nitroglycerin pills under the tongue. When the obstruction becomes complete in one of these arteries a heart attack (myocardial infarction) occurs.

Plugging of the arteries gradually gets worse with age, with the rate of progression being modified by many factors. It occurs at a younger age in some families, particularly if family members tend to be overweight or have a blood pressure or diabetes. Smoking, and a diet with an excess of animal fats and cholesterol, along with lack of exercise, and an excess of stress and tension all play a part.

Thus to decrease the chance of having a heart attack, an ideal weight should be maintained, eating fruits, vegetables and cereals and staying away from fatty meats, shell fish, egg yolks, and  other dairy fats. Limiting the sugar and alcohol in the diet is also helpful since these are turned into fats by the body, particularly if there is a tendency to be overweight or diabetic. Smoking should be totally avoided. Salt intake should be limited to help control high blood pressure. Regular vigorous exercise is a great help in keeping the heart and vascular system in good condition. This can be a brisk walk, jogging, swimming, bike, riding, tennis, or equivalent exercise. Ideally this should be at least twenty minutes, four days a week. 

If with reasonable exercise you get a pain or pressure in your chest or become excessively short of breath, you should get medical advice. An electro-cardiogram will show if you have had a heart attack. If this test is performed during exercise, it may suggest that your heart muscle is not getting enough blood and oxygen and the pain is called ‘ angina.’ Other tests with radioactive scans of your heart may help in determining the cause of chest pain.

An angiogram may be necessary to find the exact site and degree of blockage in the coronary arteries. In this test a small tube is passed into the origin of the coronary arteries and an injection of radiopaque solution is made while  X-rays are taken. If the blockages are a serious threat to life, then bypass surgery may be recommended. In this open heart operation, a vein is taken from the leg, and implanted in the heart to form another route for blood to get to the heart muscle-as a bypass or detour around the obstruction. Severe pain in the chest that persists, or occurs at rest, may indicate a heart attack is threatening. You may feel weak, look pale, and/ or break out is perspiration. For this you need immediate medical attention. The part of the body deprived of blood during a heart attack because of the blocked artery will then die and form a scar.

After a heart attack, a patient must go through a period of convalescence avoiding undue stress, gradually increasing activities, as tolerated, under medical supervision. After recovering from a heart attack particular care with diet and exercise, etc., will help prevent another attack. With a very good increase of regular simple exercise, such as a walking, there can be a great improvement in the heart muscle and its blood supply.

Blockage in coronary artery (illustrated in circle) prevents blood reaching the heart muscle so heart attack occurs

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE (Hypertension)

Stress, obesity and excessive salt intake are major factors in the development of high blood pressure.   As   the arteries become narrowed or plunged over the years, the heart has to work harder, putting the pressure up, to pump the blood around these narrowed vessels. This leads eventually to heart attacks or strokes (when a small blood vessel may rupture in the brain). 

Ultimately the heart gets tired of doing this excess work and starts to fail. It is no longer able to pump enough blood to meet the needs of the body. The blood backs up in the lungs making it more difficult to breathe, or in the veins of the body resulting in swelling of the ankles and retention of fluid.

About ten percent of the populations have high blood pressure, but only one in ten of these people get adequate medical attention and control of the pressure. If you have blood pressure, lose weight to an ideal level, avoid salt and stress and be conscientious

in taking the medicine prescribed for you.

IN CONCLUSION 

Believe it or not, after knowing all this about their heart, some people worry so much about their health and their heart`s condition that they work themselves into a state of ill-health. Worrying about your heart`s is not going to improve. We know that stress and worry are damaging. Instead of worrying a person should invest the effort in pursuing a healthy life-style. A balanced diet, adequate exercise, temperature habits, weight –control, and a happy frame of  mind will considerably reduce your chances of ever having heart disease, and will lead to a healthy, happier you.