Understanding Your Heart...

Yah eva big up smady?

Make a fist and look at it. 

Seriously....right now.

That my friend, is more of less the size of  your heart. 

So technically, when you big up a friend you re-reinforce that heart to heart connection.

The heart, along with the blood and blood vessels (arteries, veins, and capillaries) form the cardiovascular system. They all work together to ensure that the cells of the body are provided with oxygen and other important nutrients. Your heart beats around 100,000 times in a day, circulating 5 litres of blood through your body EACH minute...

Think about it, this organ is just around the size of your fist.

This is why it is important to have a basic understanding of how your heart works for you.  To those of you with a base in Biology or Integrated Science, think of this as a refresher summary. For those of you who have no idea about how our heart functions, you're about to.

For the majority of people in our world,the heart is located beneath the left breast area, underneath of the ribs. It is made up of four chambers. The upper chambers are known as atria (atrium=singular), and the lower chambers are called ventricles.
The inter-ventricular or ventricular septum is the muscular wall that divides the ventricles from one another.

The heart can be studied analyzing it in halves.

The Right half and the Left half.

As you can see in the image above the atria and ventricles are labelled by location. Right and Left, this is important because the right half our heart is in charge of pumping blood to and from our lungs in a process known as pulmonary circulation, whereas the left half of the heart pumps blood to everywhere else in our body, including itself in what is called the systemic circulation. The heart pumps by contracting then relaxing. The moment it contracts is known as systole and the moment of relaxation is called diastole.

Blood filled with oxygen and other nutrients leave the heart through the body's most impressive artery, the aorta. This large blood vessel is in  charge of sending this oxygen filled, nutrient rich blood supply onto the rest of the blood vessels connected to our organs and other body systems.

Notice above in the drawing that the aorta is coloured red along with the left side of the heart. Keep this in mind....I'll get back to that shortly.

After supplying all our cells, however,soon the nutrients and oxygen in our blood will be used up by the cells in our body, and eventually...

The types of blood vessels known as veins are in charge of making sure that the blood gets its refill of much needed oxygen.

 The veins of the body join up at the vena cava, our largest vein, this directs our oxygen deprived blood into the right atrium, then into the right ventricle and on to our lungs for oxygen replacement.

Notice that in the drawing the right side of the heart and the vena cava  is coloured in blue. Blue represents the oxygen poor blood, while red represents the oxygen rich blood. 

Once the blood has renewed its oxygen stores in the lungs, they flow into the left side of the heart, first entering the left atrium, then the left ventricle, and soon enter the aorta beginning the cycle again...

Let me bring that explanation closer to home.

Think of the heart circulation as the West Bus Station in St. Johns. Imagine a big bus filled with commuters in the morning, fresh, sharply dressed coming from their respective homes, on their way to the capital city  to go to work. These commuters represent the blood coming from the lungs to the huge aorta, full of oxygen and ready to share with the cells of our body. 

Same with the Wadadlians going to work, they're full of energy, rearing to go... (at least I hope so)

Excuse my doodling... : )

LEFT SIDE OF THE HEART   

Start from home to work.

After an honest days work however, fatigue sets in, and we are ready for some down time... the same can be applied to the blood, the body's cells have had their fill, and have left the blood with less oxygen than it started out with, and full of waste products, it is ready to be rejuvenated once more. The same with us, after morning gives way to afternoon, we slowly long for the comfort of our homes.

So...

THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE  HEART 

Start from the tired commuter to home.

There you have it. A general look at the Cardiovascular System.

In the next post we'll be moving into an illness that is one of the most prevalent in Antiguan and Barbudan society, and  is a major risk factor for a host of other diseases.

Test yourself, how much have you learnt?:

1. What structures form the Cardiovascular system.

2. How many Types of blood vessels can you remember?

3. Where does the blood go for oxygen?

4. What blood vessels take the blood away from the heart?

5. What blood vessels take the blood to the heart?

Bonus question: What are the name of the moments when the heart contracts and relaxes?

I do hope that you've learnt something, or have been reminded of information that had been stored away for
quite a while...

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."
Benjamin Franklin

Stay #wadadlianstrong

Blessings to you and yours,

©January 2014

Building Antigua and Barbuda Wadadlian strong…one post at a time.

"Prevention better than cure"

Gran gran's expression here maybe similar to ones your parents or grandparents may have used in your younger years, while repeating this popular saying, perhaps it was after some childish mishap, or directly before an impending punishment. 

You might even repeat it now to your own children in situations reminiscent of your own mischievous doings.

This proverb can be applied in every facet of our life, and through this blog I've chosen to apply it to health in Antigua and Barbuda. “De place weh ma nabel ‘tring bury.”

This idea has been developing my mind for quite some time now, as just one of the ways I would be able to give back to my family, community and country;  and with the New Year marking newer circumstances as well as new goals for most of us, I've decided to take this off the bucket list.

Welcome to Antigua and Barbuda’s Wadadlian Health Blog.

Now, first and foremost, who is this random person talking about health in ANU and giving back.

I'm most recently known as Dr. Piper.

My formation in medicine is based on the Cuban medical system and during the years spent there, I was constantly impressed at their use of preventative medicine as their foundation for strengthening the health of their population. 

There, the general practitioner's aim is to reduce health risk factors present in their communities, in order to protect their fellow nationals to the ravages and consequences of disease.

Examples of this platform can be seen at home. 
Take the National School Meals Program, for instance, or our campaigns against Breast and Prostate Cancer, and also the HIV/AIDS Program, amongst others.

What's the purpose of this blog?

Well, other than adding to our preventative platform, this blog will contribute in helping you understand how certain diseases - that are prevalent in Antiguan and Barbudan society - function on a physiological level, in simple, easy to grasp ways.

Through this format you will be shown how to identify risk factors that may actually be present in your life, or in the lives of your loved ones and teach preventative measures you can take to avoid the appearance of disease and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

The aim is to provide this information in such a way that all Antiguans and Barbudans, at home or abroad, from every walk of life will be able to read, understand, be encouraged to take that first step towards a more healthier path.

Nation building starts with us, but if there are ill builders, of what use is our nation?

What is Wadadli without its people, and who are Wadadlians without their health?

Keep those questions close in your thoughts as the week progresses. 

#wadadlianstrong

Blessings to you and yours,

© January 2014