The heart is one of the most important organs that the human being has.
It is located in the chest, between the two lungs. If you close the fist of your hand you will know more or less what is the size of your heart. As you can see, it is not very large and usually weighs a maximum of three hundred grams.
The heart is beating continuously, it never stops. Each heartbeat is a movement in which it contracts and relaxes. The contraction movement is called systole and the relaxation movement is called diastole.
The heart fulfills a fundamental mission: it pumps the blood so that it circulates without stopping and reaches every corner of our body.
It all starts when the heart contracts and sends clean, oxygen-charged blood throughout our body. This blood travels through tubes called arteries and distributes oxygen throughout the cells, tissues and organs.
But what happens? Well, at the end of the journey the blood runs out of oxygen, and since it has also been collecting waste from the body, it is quite dirty. To clean itself, it returns to the heart, although this return trip no longer does so through the same arteries, but through other tubes called veins.
As soon as it arrives, the heart pumps it to the lungs to recharge with oxygen. Once the blood is as good as new, it re-enters the heart and the cycle begins again.
The heart beats, that is, it contracts, between fifty and one hundred times per minute at rest. This is more than one hundred thousand times a day! Thanks to their constant work, our body is always supplied with clean and fresh blood.
The heart is a muscle, and like the rest of the muscles, we must take care of it. One of the ways to keep it strong is by doing moderate exercise and trying to eat a healthy and balanced diet. Some of the foods that have beneficial properties for the heart are nuts, broccoli, olive oil, salmon, and dark chocolate.
