“The heart weighs between 7 and 15 ounces (200 to 425 grams) and is a little larger than the size of your fist. By the end of a long life, a person’s heart may have beat (expanded and contracted) more than 3.5 billion times. In fact, each day, the average heart beats 100,000 times, pumping about 2,000 gallons (7,571 liters) of blood.”
Texas Heart Institute
Lets review the anatomy of the heart, our bodies oxygen is the food to our tissues in keeping them alive through our red blood cells (RBC’s) that carry the O2 to the tissues through a heart and lungs working properly. The heart in pumping and the lungs in inspiration/expiration (one organ cannot live without the other).
There has to be a systemic way we allow this to work and this is through the heart, lungs, and RBC’s (3 systems that connect with each other). The heart = right side deals with more C02 blood than 02 blood which is blood returning to the heart to get more 02 going first via the Rt. side of the heart to the pulmonary artery, each of which carries blood to the lungs for 02 and C02 exchange to occur. This is for getting more 02 in our RBC’s with allowing them to release C02 at the lungs bases and then return to the left side of the heart. On the left side of the heart this is blood to be sent through both Lt. chambers (Lt. atria first and then the Lt. ventricle) of the heart to our blood stream to utilize the new 02 in our RBC’s that they intially obtained at our lungs going now to our body tissues. This is a 24hr/7days a week job for our red blood cells, lungs and heart in functioning to keep the human body alive.
In simpler terms this is how it works: The blood that needs to be refreshed with more 02 always which takes place by the blood in our body entering the right (Rt.) atrium coming from a vessel that brings back mainly carbon dioxide in the blood from the toes and the brain that was previously oxygenated blood that mainly was used up by the tissues and those RBC’s returning on the right side of the heart need to be reoxygenated with higher levels of oxygen. For the RBC’s to deliver 02 again to tissues in redoing this process all over again it goes through a pathway=our circulatory system. When the red blood cells need more oxygen it first goes to the Rt. atrium & fills up to its max level in that chamber to going to the Rt Ventricle than through the pulmonary artery to the lungs to get more 02. Simultaneously while the Right side of the heart does this the left (Lt.) atrium is filling up to its max level than goes to the Lt. Ventricle and out the Aorta to the arteries throughout the body to carry 02 to our tissues through the RBC’s carrying the 02. Ending line when the Rt. atrium is ready to drop its blood max level into the Rt. ventricle the Lt side does the same thing. The difference is the 02 and C02 content in Rt and Lt side of the heart (Right side is more C02 in the RBC’S whereas the Left side has more 02 content in the RBCs/blood.
For the blood to get to the atriums to the ventricles they have valves; they open between the chambers simultaneously (the tricuspid valve on the right side and mitral valve on the left side) dropping the blood to the lower chambers of the heart happens simultaneously but only the Rt. side ends up going to the lungs through a pulmonary artery to get more oxygen to send the highly oxygenated blood to the L (left) side of the heart. The job the Rt. side of the heart does this, it just goes from the Rt. side of the heart to our lungs and back to the heart on the Lt. side through the pulmonary veins to the L atrium than the Lt Ventricle going to the aorta this blood gets sent throughout the body; so the path or distance for the Rt. side of the heart to do its function is a short distance = it gets your used up oxygen in the red blood cells (that are high in carbon dioxide) to get more oxygen by going through the Rt. side of the heart sending them to the lungs where they get more O2 and then they are sent back to the Lt. side of the heart. This is the Rt. side of the heart’s function and explains why the heart muscle on that side of the heart is smaller than the Lt. side. Now let us look at what the Lt. side of the heart, in what blood it delivers to our tissues with our red blood cells (RBC’s). The RBC’s reoxygenated that leave the lungs and are sent via the pulmonary vein to the Lt. side of the heart, reaching the Lt. atrium, thus carries a high 02 level in the RBC’s (this blood just came directly from the lungs where O2 and CO2 exchange for the RBC’s took place). Next the RBC’s go to the Lt. ventricle to our Aorta that sends this high oxygen level of RBC’s out to all our tissues as food to prevent starvation of the tissues. Again, when the valves open between the chambers of the heart and allowing this blood to fill up in the lower chambers called the Rt. and Lt. ventricles it is simultaneously done. Also including the valves that open and close in the heart the pulmonary artery and the aorta or the tricuspid valve and mitral valve are simultaneous as well. The ventricle sending RBC’s out to our circulatory system high in O2 to be utilized by our body tissues is the Lt. Ventrilcle. To do this job takes more effort as opposed to the Rt. side of the heart and that is why the Lt side of the heart has a bigger muscle mass (more of a work out for that side of the heart).
So the way it works with both sides of the heart is the Rt. side sends blood of highly carbon dioxide blood (RBC’s) to the lungs to get re-oxygenated through 2 vessels from the Rt. side of the heart to the lungs that sends this re-oxygenated blood in the RBC’s through 2 vessels. On the Rt side of the heart you have the Superior Vena Cava which enters the C02 blood into the right atrium and the 2 pulmonary arteries that send that blood from the Rt Ventricle to the lungs to get the 0xygen from them. Than this blood goes to the Lt. side of the heart sends this highly oxygenated blood now throughout the top and bottom of the Lt. side of the heart through 2 vessels which are the pulmonary veins dumping the blood in the Lt atrium down into the Lt ventricle and out the aorta that sends this blood throughout our body tissues. When this oxygen is used all up from the RBC’s dispensing it out to tissues the C02 is taken back from the tissues by RBC’s that replace it with O2 through breathing; this process starts all over again with these RBC’s returning to the right side of the heart reaching the lungs to get more oxygen to be sent out by the left side of the heart to go out to all our tissues. Ending line the right side of the heart is for higher levels of carbon dioxide in the blood (used up oxygenated blood) to get more oxygen through our RBC’s whereas the left side of the heart sends higher levels of O2 throughout the body all the way to the toes through the RBC’s (a harder job on the left side of the heart=muscle mass of the left side of the heart works out more than the right making the left side of the heart a bigger muscle vs the right side).
Now knowing the anatomy and physiology of the heart let’s now understand more about a cardiac disease RVR=Rapid Ventricular Rate and Atrial Fibrillation and more regarding how they develop and in how it effects the engine of the body, being the heart, and the lungs=the transmission of the body. Like a car if the engine is affected in time the transmission gets affected and if not repaired by the mechanic the car engine will die with the transmission. Same effect with the human engine=the heart. If the heart is affected in time it will effect the lungs and if not repaired the heart will die and so will the lungs with the rest of the body.
Tomorrow Part 2 on Rapid Ventricular Rate and A Fib in how it affects the heart in functioning but how it can be treated to live a fairly normal life.
“In short most of us think of sleep as a passive and relatively constant and unchanging process. In fact, sleep is a very active state. Our bodies move frequently, as we roll about during the night, and, more importantly to the psychologist, our brain activity is even more varied than it is during the normal waking state.”
Dement, W.C. (1978). Some must watch while some must sleep. New York: W.W. Norton.
Pinel, J.P.J. (1992). Biopsychology. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
“If you have norovirus, don’t prepare food for at least two to three days after you feel better. Try not to eat food that has been prepared by someone else who is sick.”
WEB MD.
Norovirus is a very contagious virus that can infect anyone. You can get it from an infected person, contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces. The virus causes your stomach or intestines or both to get inflamed. This leads you to have stomach pain, nausea, and diarrhea and to throw up. These symptoms can be serious for some people, especially young children and older adults.
Anyone can be infected with norovirus and get sick. Also, you can have norovirus illness many times in your life. Norovirus illness can be serious, especially for young children and older adults.
Norovirus is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in the United States. Each year, it causes 19-21 million illnesses and contributes to 56,000-71,000 hospitalizations and 570-800 deaths. Norovirus is also the most common cause of foodborne-disease outbreaks in the United States.
The best way to help prevent norovirus is to practice proper hand washing and general cleanliness.
Norovirus can be found in your stool (feces) even before you start feeling sick. The virus can stay in your stool for 2 weeks or more after you feel better.
You are most contagious
“Hepatitis types B and C lead to chronic disease in hundreds of millions of people and, together, are the most common cause of liver cirrhosis and cancer.”
WHO World Health Organization
“According to some studies, however, up to almost half the people who had polio at a young age may experience certain effects of the disease many years later — post-polio syndrome.”
MAYO CLINIC
“The words polio (grey) and myelon (marrow, indicating the spinal cord) are derived from the Greek. It is the effect of poliomyelitis virus on the spinal cord that leads to the classic manifestation of paralysis.”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
A virus is a small, infectious agent that is made up of a core of genetic material surrounded by a shell of protein. The genetic material (which is responsible for carrying forward hereditary traits from parent cells to offspring) may be either deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA). Viruses are at the borderline between living and nonliving matter. When they infect a host cell, they are able to carry on many life functions, such as metabolism and reproduction. But outside a host cell, they are as inactive as a grain of sand.
Viruses cause disease by infecting a host cell and taking over its biochemical functions. In order to produce new copies of itself, a virus must use the host cell’s reproductive “machinery.” The newly made viruses then leave the host cell, sometimes killing it in the process, and proceed to infect other cells within the organism.
Viruses can infect plants, bacteria, and animals. The tobacco mosaic virus, one of the most studied of all viruses, infects tobacco plants. Animal viruses cause a variety of diseases, including AIDS (acquired immuno deficiency syndrome), hepatitis, chicken pox, smallpox, polio, measles, rabies, the common cold, and some forms of cancer.
Viruses that affect bacteria are called bacteriophages, or simply phages (pronounced FAY-jez). Phages are of special importance due to the susceptibility of the viruse transmission. The disease Polio (poliomyelitis) in time will be transmitted throughout the bloodstream and the highly viral infectious disease is now spreading in the body.
Poliomyelitis (POLIO) is a viral disease. There are three types of poliovirus and many strains of each type. The virus enters through the mouth and multiplies in the throat and gastrointestinal tract, then moves into the bloodstream and is carried to the central nervous system where it replicates and destroys the motor neuron cells. Motor neurons control the muscles for swallowing, circulation, respiration, and the trunk, arms, and legs.
Human nerve cells have a protruding protein structure on their surface whose precise function is unknown. When poliovirus encounters the nerve cells, the protruding receptors attach to the virus particle, and infection begins. Once inside the cell, the virus hijacks the cell’s assembly process, and makes thousands of copies of itself in hours. The virus kills the cell and then spreads to infect other cells.
A virus is a small, infectious agent that is made up of a core of genetic material surrounded by a shell of protein. The genetic material (which is responsible for carrying forward hereditary traits from parent cells to offspring) may be either deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA). Viruses are at the borderline between living and nonliving matter. When they infect a host cell, they are able to carry on many life functions, such as metabolism and reproduction. But outside a host cell, they are as inactive as a grain of sand.
How it is gets into the human body:
Polio is spread through person-to-person contact. When a child is infected with wild poliovirus, the virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestine. It is then shed into the environment through the faeces where it can spread rapidly through a community, especially in situations of poor hygiene and sanitation. If a sufficient number of children are fully immunized against polio, the virus is unable to find susceptible children to infect, and dies out. Young children who are not yet toilet-trained are a ready source of transmission, regardless of their environment. Polio can be spread when food or drink is contaminated by faeces. There is also evidence that flies can passively transfer poliovirus from faeces to food. Most people infected with the poliovirus have no signs of illness and are never aware they have been infected. These symptomless people carry the virus in their intestines and can “silently” spread the infection to thousands of others before the first case of polio paralysis emerges. For this reason, WHO considers a single confirmed case of polio paralysis to be evidence of an epidemic – particularly in countries where very few cases occur.
Most infected people (90%) have no symptoms or very mild symptoms and usually go unrecognized. In others, initial symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck and pain in the limbs.
Poliomyelitis (POLIO) is a viral disease. There are three types of poliovirus and many strains of each type. The virus enters through the mouth and multiplies in the throat and gastrointestinal tract, then moves into the bloodstream and is carried to the central nervous system where it replicates and destroys the motor neuron cells. Motor neurons control the muscles for swallowing, circulation, respiration, and the trunk, arms, and legs.
Human nerve cells have a protruding protein structure on their surface whose precise function is unknown. When poliovirus encounters the nerve cells, the protruding receptors attach to the virus particle, and infection begins. Once inside the cell, the virus hijacks the cell’s assembly process, and makes thousands of copies of itself in hours. The virus kills the cell and then spreads to infect other cells.
Polio is spread through person-to-person contact. When a child is infected with wild poliovirus, the virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestine. It is then shed into the environment through the faeces where it can spread rapidly through a community, especially in situations of poor hygiene and sanitation. If a sufficient number of children are fully immunized against polio, the virus is unable to find susceptible children to infect, and dies out. Young children who are not yet toilet-trained are a ready source of transmission, regardless of their environment. Polio can be spread when food or drink is contaminated by faeces. There is also evidence that flies can passively transfer poliovirus from faeces to food. Most people infected with the poliovirus have no signs of illness and are never aware they have been infected. These symptomless people carry the virus in their intestines and can “silently” spread the infection to thousands of others before the first case of polio paralysis emerges. For this reason, WHO considers a single confirmed case of polio paralysis to be evidence of an epidemic – particularly in countries where very few cases occur.
Most infected people (90%) have no symptoms or very mild symptoms and usually go unrecognized. In others, initial symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck and pain in the limbs.
TYPES:
One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs. This is caused by the virus entering the blood stream and invading the central nervous system. As it multiplies, the virus destroys the nerve cells that activate muscles. The affected muscles are no longer functional and the limb becomes floppy and lifeless – a condition known AFP = Acute Flaccid Paralysis.
Know all cases of AFP among children under fifteen years old are reported and tested for poliovirus within 48 hours of onset.
All cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) among children under fifteen years of age are reported and tested for poliovirus within 48 hours of onset.
More extensive paralysis, involving the trunk and muscles of the thorax and abdomen, can result in quadriplegia. In the most severe cases (bulbar polio), poliovirus attacks the nerve cells of the brain stem, reducing breathing capacity and causing difficulty in swallowing and speaking. Among those paralysed, 5% to 10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.
No one knows why only a small percentage of infections lead to paralysis. Several key risk factors have been identified as increasing the likelihood of paralysis in a person infected with polio. These include:
There is no cure for polio, only treatment to alleviate the symptoms. Heat and physical therapy is used to stimulate the muscles and antispasmodic drugs are given to relax the muscles. While this can improve mobility, it cannot unfortunately reverse permanent polio paralysis.
Polio can be prevented through immunization. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, almost always protects a child for life.