Heart of the Matter


 

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.

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