The Heart And The Circulatory System
Provided By The ICPA
Have you ever stopped to think about your heart? This powerful organ works all day and all night—never taking a break! Its job is to pump blood throughout your body so that every cell gets what it needs to stay healthy and strong.
What Does Blood Do?
Your blood is like a delivery system—it carries oxygen from your lungs and nutrients from your food to every part of your body. Without this constant flow, your cells couldn’t stay healthy or alive.
A Heart with Four Rooms
Your heart is a muscle about the size of your fist that pumps blood throughout your body. Hearts have a unique shape with four chambers (or “rooms”):
- The right atrium and right ventricle
- The left atrium and left ventricle
Each side has an important job. The right side sends blood to your lungs to pick up oxygen, while the left
side pumps that fresh, oxygen-filled blood out to the rest of your body. Between each chamber are
valves—tiny one-way doors that open and close as blood moves through. The sound of these valves
opening and closing is the “lub-dub” you hear when you listen to your heartbeat!