Map
of the Human Heart
Let's get straight to the heart of the matter--the heart's
job is to move blood. Day and night, the muscles of your heart contract and
relax to pump blood throughout your body. When blood returns to the heart, it
follows a complicated pathway. If you were in the bloodstream, you would follow
the steps below one by one.
1. Oxygen-poor
blood (shown in blue) flows from the body into the right atrium.
2. Blood flows
through the right atrium into the right ventricle.
3. The right
ventricle pumps the blood to the lungs, where the blood releases waste gases and
picks up oxygen.
4. The newly
oxygen-rich blood (shown in red) returns to the heart and enters the left
atrium.
5. Blood flows
through the left atrium into the left ventricle.
6. The left
ventricle pumps the oxygen-rich blood to all parts of the body.
Do right and left seem backward? That's because you're looking at an
illustration of somebody else's heart. To think about how your own heart works,
imagine wearing this illustration on your chest.