A Closer Look at the Heart
The human body is the world’s greatest inventions. There are many organs, glands, systems and more that contribute to the magnitude of greatness of the body, although the heart can arguably be the most vital and important to the body. The heart is a very intricate organ by the way the organ is structured, what the organ does, how the organ does it, and even the different diseases that can plague the heart. In addition to being most paramount structure in the body, the heart has a vast basis of research that is continually finding new discoveries and technology for it.
Despite being a major contributor to human body functioning giving the heart an extraordinary complexity, if one analyzes different parts of the organ at a time then it gives the organ a more subtle simplicity. The heart has roughly the size of ones fist, giving it a mass between 250 and 350 grams. This organ is situated snugly between the lungs, but it is more orientated to the left lung. “It rests on the superior surface of the diaphragm, the heart lies anterior to the vertebral column and posterior to the sternum” (Marieb). Regardless of all the protection the heart receives from the skeleton surrounding it, the organ also has “double-walled sac called the pericardium” (Marieb). The three major functions of the pericardium is to protect the heart, securing itself to neighboring structures, and lastly to prevent to the heart to over accumulate blood. Deeper into the pericardium, there is a double layer, one is the parietal layer which “attaches to the large arteries exiting the heart, and then turns inferiorly and continues over the external heart surface” (Marieb), and the visceral layer which is the primary part of the heart wall. The heart has is composed of three layers: the epicardium; the myocardium; and the endocardium. The epicardium is the visceral layer. The