Ever wondered how and why our heart pumps blood? We don’t think about it all that often, but we certainly should. Your heart is an extremely important muscle inside your chest. Whenever you are awake or even when you are sleeping, your heart is constantly working to pump blood through your body.

When there is a problem with our heart, that is when we realize how important it is to us. As a matter of fact, the heart is one of the most important organs in our body. It works day and night so that we can continue to live healthy lives. But how does the heart pump blood? And what happens when it is not working correctly? Let’s find out how our “pump” works.

What is a HEART? 

The heart is the center of blood and is one of the major organs of your body. It does most of the work since all of your blood passes through it many times per day. The heart has four chambers which assist in pumping, and you must know how a heart pumps its blood to keep your body working properly.

How does the heart pump blood?

 It’s the heart that pumps blood through your body, but how exactly does it do that?

Well, the heart has four chambers: the left and right atria and left and right ventricles. It also has a thick wall between the two sides of each chamber—that is, between the atria and the ventricles. The wall is called an interventricular septum.

When the atria contract and the ventricles are relaxed, it allows blood to flow into the ventricles (the chambers on the bottom of your heart). When the ventricles contract, they squeeze the blood out of the ventricles through the semilunar valves into one of two passages: the pulmonary artery or aorta. The right ventricle pushes blood through the pulmonary artery to the lungs to get oxygenated. The left ventricle pushes oxygenated blood through the aorta to the entire body.

Your heart contracts involuntarily, that means you don’t have to think about it! Even though your heart beats regularly without any help from you at all, it’s still important that you take care of yourself so it stays healthy!

The heart has four chambers

1. The right atrium is the heart’s top part. It takes blood from the body and transports it to the right ventricle.

2. The right ventricle pumps blood to the lungs (the pulmonary circulation). The superior and inferior vena cava supply it with deoxygenated blood. It also uses the pulmonary valve to pump deoxygenated blood into the pulmonary artery.

3.  The left atrium is a part of the heart that is responsible for receiving blood from the pulmonary veins and pumping it into the left ventricle. The pulmonary veins receive this blood from lungs and it is oxygenated.

4. The left ventricle is the hardest-working part of your heart. It pumps oxygenated blood from your lungs to the aorta to the rest of your body, and it’s the only part of your heart that pumps blood to places outside of your cardiovascular system.

When the left ventricle contracts, it squeezes the blood out into a larger artery called the aorta, which carries blood all over your body.

The heart significantly impacts our lives. It pumps blood through our arteries around our body. Blood is filled with nutrients (from the food we eat) to help feed and give energy to our cells and organs, as well as oxygen (from the air we breathe) which allows cells to carry out the chemical reactions they need. We can’t live without a heart, so remember not to forget it!

The heart is something we all take for granted, but it’s actually a pretty amazing piece of machinery. The heart works tirelessly and flawlessly every single day. It never takes a vacation and never asks for time off.

In the end, I hope that the blog above has given you a deeper sense of how our heart pumps blood. With all of the distractions and responsibilities in our lives, sometimes it’s good to take a step back and reexamine some of the basics.  

To learn about all the steps it takes as blood flows through the heart check out my video here:

To learn more about the heart and the circulatory system, click here: