What is The Cardiovascular System?
The heart and circulatory system also called the cardiovascular system make up the network that delivers blood to the body‘s tissues. With each heartbeat, blood is sent throughout our bodies, carrying oxygen and nutrients to all of our cells.
The circulatory system is composed of the heart and blood vessels, including arteries, veins, and capillaries.
Our bodies actually have two circulatory systems:
The pulmonary circulation Is a short loop from the heart to the lungs and back again, and the systematic circulation sends blood from the heart to all the other parts of our bodies and back again.
Take care of your heart
Chances are, we’ve heard doctors, friends, well-meaning family members tell us to take care of our heart and cardiovascular system. It’s important to know what the cardiovascular system really is so that we can better understand how to take care of it. This is a brief overview of what the cardiovascular system is, and how it functions.
Cardiovascular System
This system is made up of our heart, blood and blood vessels. We all know that the heart pumps blood through our blood vessels to deliver oxygen to our body’s cells, and the blood returns with waste products like CO2. The first is the systemic circulation, which sends the blood from our hearts to our body cells, and back to the heart again. The second is the pulmonary circulation, a short loop that we don’t often think of when we say “cardiovascular system”. This circulation takes blood from the heart, to the lungs and back to the heart again, which then leads it to the systemic circulation.
Another difference important to know in our cardiovascular system are the blood vessels. Blood vessels are veins and arteries, and smaller blood vessels called capillaries. The veins take blood from the cells of the body to the heart, and the arteries take blood from the heart to the cells. Blood in the veins is full of waste products from the cells, while blood in the arteries is rich in oxygen from the lungs. Capillaries are the tiny blood vessels where the actual oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange happens between the blood and cells.
Now more about the king of the system, the heart. The heart is basically a muscle that does all the work to pump blood from it to the lungs and from the heart to the body. The right and left atria are the sites that receive blood. Blood then moves from the atria through the valves to the ventricles. The right and ventricles are the sites that pump blood to the lungs and the body.
It is important to familiarize ourselves with our cardiovascular system in order to better understand and take care of our health. Keep yourself and your family safe monitoring your heart and any symptoms that may arise.
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If you would like to schedule an appointment with Cardiologist in Metro Detroit Area, call now (586) 698-1200. Cardiovascular Consultants have three locations. Click here to schedule an appointment with a Cardiologist in Sterling Heights, Washington Township or Rochester Hills, Michigan.
