What side of the heart pumps blood to the body?

Did you know that there are actually two sides to your heart? No, seriously. One side pumps blood to the lungs while the other pumps it throughout your entire body. Bet you didn’t learn that in health class! Anyway, let’s dive into which side of your heart does what and how it keeps you alive.

The Left Ventricle: Your Pumped Up BFF

The left ventricle is basically like that popular girl in high school who was always pulling strings behind-the-scenes. This chamber is responsible for pumping freshly oxygenated blood out of your heart and into all areas of your body (except for one pesky little organ we’ll talk about later).

Fun Fact: Did you know that when astronauts go up into space their hearts actually become a little rounder because they don’t have gravity helping push their blood flow along? Talk about increasing your profile cuteness with each passing second.

The Mitral Valve: A Gatekeeper with a Big Job

You’ve heard the phrase “when one door closes another opens,” right? Well, think about this. Every time fresh oxygenated red blood cells travel through our left atrium from our lungs via pulmonary veins, they pass through a big ol’ gate called the mitral valve before entering our pumped-up friend named Mr./Ms.Left Ventrical.

Another Fun Fact: Did y’all realize if someone has an issue/deficiency/painful lump/neoplastic lesion/enlargement/tumor…. on this blasted valve then scientists give them something called MVP (Mitral Valve Prolapse) cough not as cool-sounding as POA(Power Over Airanoids).

Arteries vs. Veins: Can You Tell Them Apart?

Arteries and veins look pretty similar but boy do they play different chess games inside those tickers of ours! Arteries carry blood away from the heart to your tissues and organs while veins return that same blood back to your heart.

Bet you didn’t know that there are actually more than 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body right now. No wonder our skinny jeans feel a little tighter these days, eh?

The Right Atrium: The Red-Headed Stepchild

Nobody likes feeling left out but the right atrium plays a pretty important role despite being overshadowed by its popular counterpart (aka Left Ventricle). This heirloom chamber receives deoxygenated blood returned via veins from all over except for those darn pesky pulmonary veins we mentioned earlier.

Even More Fun Facts: Do y’all remember when Peter Pan told Wendy that “all you need is faith, trust, and a little bit of pixie dust?” Well for our hearts it’s faith through EKGs/Electrocardiograms and IVUS/IntraVascular UltraSound; trust through nuclear/stress tests & cardiac PET scans and useful visualization through echocardiography(say THAT three times fast); pixie dust…alright now i’m just getting ridiculous.

Tricuspid Valve: A Three Piece Puzzle

Three is NOT company when it comes to this valve located between the right atrium and ventricle. Why? Because without those neat little leaflets/cusps/flaps/etc.(think Nicolas Cage but inside our bodies), things could get pretty dicey with backflow!

Interestingly enough congenital defects within this gate can lead up to something called TV Repair aka Tricuspid Valve Reconstruction/Surgery which sounds like HGTV found themselves another interesting niche audience if y’all think about it….

Systemic Circulation vs Pulmonary Circulation

We touched on arteries and veins but what separates them even further is each one’s unique journey.

  • Systemic Circulation: Traveling to tissues and organs only for these blood cells to drop off oxygen we so desperately need before returning back home where it all started. Think spinning wheels on a car occasionally changing but always heading towards that same destination.

  • Pulmonary Circulation however involves just one simple yet vital task – remove CO2 from our bodies while receiving much-needed O2 thanks to good ole’ pulmonary arteries and veins.

Left Atrium: Our Most Important Lung Buddy

Remember those pesky pulmonary veins we mentioned earlier? Well, our left atrium is the lucky recipient of their freshly-oxygenated cargo!

Even More Fun Facts: Here’s some interesting names you may not have heard of in reference to this chamber- The bacon slicer according to religious groups, Venus Pudica (heavens forbid), or even the furthest thing away from Kevin Bacon’s sense of humor aka the Bose-Einstein Condensation Chamber, possibly named after Indian physicist S.N Bose and German-American theoretical physicist Albert Einstein though unconfirmed sources dispute etymology because seriously why make things easy

So…Which Side Actually Pumps Blood To Your Body?

Eureka! It is none other than your ever-faithful left ventricle that pumps freshly oxygenated red blood cells right out the door towards each cell in approximately 3 total circuit loops throughout your “Beautiful Mind” body.

Pulsed out every time with enough force(~89mmHg)to hit the proverbial bullseye down range; its big mission accomplished–by carrying key markers like hemoglobin within young stem cells located inside bone marrow centers—red baloon-like characters journey over great distances… through tight squeezes between arterial wall layers/muscles/piece o bread(delicious tasteless joke)…and eventually reach crucial bodily storage points like spleen which they cling for extra innovative purposes–letting gravity do its work.

Through every exhale and inhale we take, our heart is essentially a well-oiled machine constantly working to make sure oxygenated blood supplied to each individual organ throughout your entire body(scared me when y’all mentioned the pesky-one-mentioned pulmonary veins)/and all their functions are conducted without problem. So if anyone ever asks you what side of the heart pumps blood to the body now…well my friend, you know for certain!

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