Your Heart Explained Simply
Your heart is a very strong muscle that works non-stop. It pumps blood around your body. The blood carries oxygen and food to keep your body working. Your heart is so strong that it only takes a minute to pump blood to your toes and back again!
- The right side of your heart sends blood to the lungs to get oxygen.
- Blood returning from the lungs is full of oxygen.
- The left side of your heart pumps this blood to all parts of the body.
- Oxygen makes blood a bright red colour.
- The blood in your arteries contains more oxygen than the blood in your veins.
- Tiny blood vessels called capillaries take the blood from the arteries to all the cells of the body.
- Other capillaries then take the blood back to the veins.
Blood is made up of red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets in a liquid called plasma.
Red blood cells carry oxygen around the body.
White blood cells fight germs.
Category: Anatomy & Physiology