"Heart Disease"

Authors Avatar

Carl Feldman

“Heart Disease”

In the United Kingdom we have one of the highest death rates from heart disease in the world; every three minutes one British adult dies from the disease. (1)

The above statement clearly outlines how serious a problem heart disease is in the UK, but before one can begin to understand heart disease and how it affects the heart and cardiovascular system in the body one must first understand how the heart and related systems work.

The heart is found directly in the centre of the chest, directly behind the sternum and is surrounded by the pericardial cavity. It is roughly fist size and beats around 100,000 times every day, pumping roughly 8000 litres of blood (2). The heart is part of a system called the cardiovascular system that transports cells, nutrients wastes and gasses to and from the various cells and organs of the body. The circulatory system can be subdivided into two further parts; the pulmonary circuit which carries blood to and from the lungs and the systemic circuit which carries blood to and from the body. Carrying blood away from the heart are arteries and veins return blood to the heart. In addition there are capillaries which are tiny vessels where material is exchanged between blood and tissue fluid (3). As one is aware the function of the heart is to pump blood around the body and as there are two cardiovascular systems that need to be catered for the heart has adapted for this. It is actually two pumps stuck together and each pump is further subdivided into two chambers. A thin walled chamber called the atrium and a thick walled chamber called a ventricle. The right hand pump is smaller and less muscular as this drives the pulmonary circuit. The pulmonary circuit transports de-oxygenated blood to the lungs. The left hand pump drives the systemic circuit which forces oxygenated blood through the aorta to the rest of the body. The heart is a muscle but unlike other muscles cardiac muscle doesn’t fatigue due to the many mitochondria and reserves of myoglobin the fibres contain (2). In between beats when the heart is resting, blood flows into both sides of the heart. Each atrium then contracts, forcing blood into the ventricle. The muscular ventricles then contract forcing blood under high pressure into the pulmonary artery and aorta. To prevent back flow into the atria when the ventricle contracts there are large valves that separate the chambers, also there are valves to prevent back flow from the arteries in between beats. (2)

Join now!

Due to the breadth of this subject and the constraints of this essay I will outline the following areas; what the disease is, the causes, preventative measures that can be taken to lessen the risk of heart disease, symptoms and finally what treatments are available.

What is heart disease? Coronary heart disease is the name used to describe the narrowing of the coronary arteries. The arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart muscle. Coronary heart disease can cause ischemia. Ischemia is when the supply of blood and oxygen to the heart muscle is inadequate; this ...

This is a preview of the whole essay