Understanding the Circulatory System

by Desiree Lotz July 19, 2014

The Coolest Circulatory System on Earth!

Understanding the circulatory system transports us into a world of water, nutrients, and oxygen to billions of body cells and carries away wastes, such as carbon dioxide, produced by the same cells. An amazing highway thousands of miles long, this thoroughfare travels your entire body and engages with every body cell.

Three major parts make up the system: Heart, Blood, and Blood Vessels.

The Heart

The heart, a muscle, is the system’s central organ. The heart pumps blood and keeps it moving throughout the human body. Simply put, no beating heart = no circulation = dead body.

The adult heart, which is typically the size of a grown man’s clenched fist, will beat about THREE BILLION times during an average lifetime. Its location is in the center of your chest slightly to the left and behind the ribs and breastbone that protect it.

A healthy condition of your heart is easily maintained with a few activities:

Exercise on a regular basis. Go outside and play a sport, or move around randomly. Take a walk, jog a course or run to a location and back home. Run a bit and walk a bit; ride a bike – it’s fun and relaxing; lace up your skates and take to the pathways or the ice in your locale. Jump rope, jump on a trampoline or simply jump on place. Join the local Y and swim laps in the pool… make a few new friends while you’re there, too.
Eat Healthy. Remember the Food Pyramid and make sure you’re eating your food from the bottom to top.
Don’t Smoke! Don’t Smoke! Don’t Smoke! If you’re smoking now, figure how get over it and stop!

The Blood

The product of the heart is blood flow. Surprisingly, a young person’s body holds only about a gallon of blood inside, and an adult body about 5 quarts – the same in oil as a typical automobile engine!

Blood is more just a red liquid. In fact, about 55 percent of its makeup is plasma, which is pale-yellow. Plasma is a viscous liquid carrying solids and small amounts of oxygen and carbon dioxide. One drop of blood contains a half drop of plasma, FIVE MILLION red blood cells, 10 THOUSAND white blood cells and 250 THOUSAND platelets.

Plasma is manufactured in the body’s liver to convey blood cells and other components throughout the body. Plasma serves as a protein reserve account for the human body and also plays a vital role in keeping electrolytes in balanced form while protecting the body from infection and other blood disorders throughout the human circulatory system.

Blood Cells

Red blood cells carry oxygen and carbon dioxide, picking up the oxygen in the lungs and transporting it to all of the body cells, where it gathers carbon dioxide (a by-product waste gas produced by cell function) and transports it back to the lungs for removal from the body with each exhalation.

White blood cells attack and destroy germs entering the body. An elevated presence of white blood cells indicates there is an infection that needs fighting off. At times, doctor-prescribed antibiotics can assist white blood cells to fight a large-scale infection.

Platelets are blood cells that act to stop bleeding. When a cut or broken blood vessel releases blood out of the body, platelets stick to the opening of the broken blood vessel. They stick and attract more platelets, fibers and other blood cells to form a plug that seals the damaged vessel and stops the bleeding. Such platelet plugs are called scabs.

Red and white blood cells and platelets are made by bone marrow, a soft tissue inside of our bones. Healthy, calcium-rich bone marrow produces approximately 500 BILLION blood cells per day, which are then conveyed to the body’s circulation system.

The Blood Vessels

With literally thousands of miles of blood vessels that could circle around the Earth at the equator TWICE, if placed end to end, understanding the circulatory system is a vast subject! There are three distinct “pavement types” in the circulatory system “highway:” Arteries, Capillaries and Veins. Each has a distinct mission to carry out.

Arteries carry oxygen-enriched blood AWAY from the heart. Veins carry blood back TOWARD the heart, and capillaries — tiny blood vessels as thin or thinner than the hairs on your head — connect the arteries to the veins. Food nutrients, oxygen and waste pass in and out of your blood through the capillary walls.

The whole point of the circulatory system is to keep each body cell alive and in a healthy balance of outflows and inflows. When you think of the human circulatory system and its many functions and purposes, and realize that as you sit there your human body has all that going on under its skin… it’s really quite amazing!

And there you have it – a cursory look at understanding the circulatory system.

This was the second in a series of related blog posts, which cover the human body. The next takes on the digestive system, so come back next week and take another look. Meanwhile, if you have questions or comments, please feel free to ask them here. We’ll get back to you with an answer right away.

DISCLAIMER: As with all of our blogs, the information herein is for educational purposes only, and not intended to diagnose, make opinion on, or treat any medical illness or condition. We recommend that you consult with a licensed medical practitioner regarding the use of any of the data presented.