The heart is one of the most important organs that the human being has.
It is located in the thorax, between the two lungs. If you make a fist you will know more or less what the size of your heart is. As you can see, it is not very big and usually weighs a maximum of about three hundred grams.
The heart is beating continuously, it never stops. Each heartbeat is a movement in which you contract and relax. The contraction movement is called systole and the relaxation movement is called diastole.
The heart fulfills a fundamental mission: it pumps blood so that it circulates non-stop and reaches every corner of our body.
It all begins when the heart contracts and sends clean, oxygen-laden blood throughout our body. This blood travels through tubes called arteries and distributes oxygen to 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 is no longer done through the same arteries, but through other conduits called veins.
As soon as it arrives, the heart pumps it to the lungs so that it is replenished with oxygen. Once the blood is good as new, it enters the heart again 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 its 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 walnuts, broccoli, olive oil, salmon, and dark chocolate.