The Cardiovascular System

The cardiovascular system consists of the heart and blood vessels surrounding it. The heart pumps blood, while the blood vessels channel and deliver it throughout the body. Arteries carry blood filled with vital nutrients away from the heart to all parts of the body. Arteries are thick-walled tubes with a circular covering of yellow, elastic fibers, which contain a filling of muscle that absorbs the tremendous pressure wave of a heartbeat and slows the blood down, (http://www.innerbody.com). Two places on the body to feel this pressure is the arm and wrist; this is what is called the pulse. Further down the circuit, arteries divide into smaller vessels known as arterioles and then into capillaries, the smallest of all blood vessels. One arteriole is the equivalent of a hundred capillaries. Every organ in the human body requires consistent blood flow. Blood's work is done when it releases the vital nutrients to the cells of the organ/ tissue and takes away the waste products that they don't need. Capillaries join together to form small veins, which flow into larger main veins, and these deliver deoxygenated blood back to the heart. Veins, unlike arteries, have thin, slack walls, because the blood has lost the pressure which forced it out of the heart, so the dark, reddish-blue blood which flows through the veins on its way to the lungs oozes along very slowly on its way to be reoxygenated. Back at the heart, the veins enter a special vessel, called the pulmonary arteries, into the wall at the right side of the heart. It flows along the pulmonary arteries to the lungs to collect oxygen, and then back to the heart's left side to begin its journey around the body again.

Blood Vessels
There are three main types of blood vessel in the human body:y y y Arteries Veins Capillaries

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Arteries Arteries are blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart. The largest artery in the human body is the aorta. This particular vessel is connected to the left ventricle of the heart. The aortas function is to carry and release oxygen rich blood to all other arteries so they can carry out their job of providing the blood to all parts of the body. Without arteries, our body would not be able to operate as it is not receiving the vital nutrients which it needs. Veins Veins are blood vessels that carry blood from various parts of the body, to the heart. There four different types of vein, pulmonary, systemic, superficial and deep vein. Veins receive blood from the arteries via the arterioles and capillaries. Smaller veins called venules, receives the deoxygenated blood and is delivered to larger veins. Eventually, this circuit reaches the largest veins in the human body, the vena cava. The vena cava then distributes the blood to the right atrium of the heart the cardiovascular process begins again.

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Capillaries A capillary is the smallest type of blood vessel. These are only one cell thick and act as the link between veins and arteries in the cardiovascular system. Here is an image to show how small the capillaries actually are:-

The Heart
The heart is the core engine of the human body, without the heart, we simply would die. It is categorised as cardiac muscle because its a muscle type on its own, no other muscle in the human body is like it. It is also the primary organ within the cardiovascular system, hence the system being named after the muscle. The average human heart, beating at 72 beats per minute, will beat approximately 2.5 billion times during an average 66 year lifespan. It weighs approximately 250 to 300 grams in females and 300 to 350 grams in males, (www.wikipedia.org). The heart contains a buffer zone to decrease the amount of force that is put upon our bodies, without this, we would be

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shaken every time our heart beats. The buffer zone also protects the heart from outside injury and keeps it from scraping against the chest wall. Below is a diagram of the human heart which illustrates all the main components:-

The function of the right side of the heart, (see blue half of heart), is to collect deoxygenated blood inside the right atrium, from the body. The blood is then pumped through the tricuspid valve, via the right ventricle, into the lungs so that gas exchange can occur. This happens through the process of diffusion. The function of the left side of the heart, (see red half of heart), collects oxygenated blood from the lungs, into the left atrium. From the left atrium the blood moves to the left ventricle, through the bicuspid valve, which pumps it out to the body via the aorta. On both sides of the heart, the lower ventricles are thicker and stronger than the upper ventricles. The muscle wall surrounding the left ventricle is thicker than the wall surrounding the right ventricle due to the higher force needed to pump the blood through the cardiovascular system.

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Sources

www.innerbody.com www.wikipedia.org P.E and Sport class notes.

Toby Campbell - 12MJL