 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||
|
The heart is a strong muscle about the size of your fist that lies in the center of your chest. The heart pumps blood, oxygen, and nutrients through the circulatory system. Each day the average heart "beats" (expands and contracts) 100,000 times and pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood. This blood brings oxygen and nutrients to all of the body's organs and tissues, including the heart itself. It also picks up waste products from the body's cells. These waste products are removed as they are filtered through the kidneys, liver and lungs. In general, we say that arteries carry blood rich with oxygen from the heart and lungs to the rest of the body, and veins carry the blood back to the heart and lungs.
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||
