Circulatory System: What It Is, Parts And Characteristics
According to the latest calculations, an adult human being weighing 70 kilograms and 170 centimeters tall is composed of approximately 30 trillion cells.
Of all of them, a significant percentage includes red blood cells, since it is estimated that there are approximately 5 million of them per microliter of blood. If we take into account that a human being has about 5 liters of blood running through his ducts and bathing his organs, the number of total red blood cells skyrockets.
These data exemplify that The circulatory system is one of the most important at a physiological level for the human being. Our tissues are “living” entities to a certain extent, since they generate waste substances that need to be removed and nutrients to perform metabolic functions. Without a network of fluid tissues that is responsible for this task, the life of complex multicellular beings like us (beyond jellyfish) would be impossible.
Yes, you read correctly: blood is a liquid connective tissue. This is just one of the many curiosities that the circulatory system houses, and we will tell you all about them in the following lines.
Circulatory system: what is it and what are its parts?
From a physiological point of view, this device is defined as the one that contains the heart (the organ of life par excellence) and the blood vessels, which allows it to move blood through the body and all the organs and tissues that compose it. .
This conglomerate of tubes and fluids allows the organs to receive oxygen and nutrients and at the same time get rid of metabolic waste substances potentially toxic if stored in excess.
In most informative sources, the lymphatic system (through which lymph flows, pardon the redundancy) is considered part of the circulatory system. For informational reasons, we will leave this second system for another opportunity.
Beyond these data, it is necessary to name, even briefly, each of its parts to understand the circulatory system in its entirety. Go for it.
1. The heart
The heart is defined as the central organ of blood circulation, which in lower animals is the simple dilation of a vessel and in higher animals it is muscular, contractile, and has two, three or four cavities. You read correctly, because not all cardiac organs are composed of two ventricles and two atria as in humans.
For example, amphibians have two atria and one ventricle, in which a mixture of oxygenated and partially deoxygenated blood is produced.
The heart It is considered the strongest muscular structure in our body, as it beats tirelessly more than 3,000 million times throughout our lives and pumps more than 7,000 liters of blood daily, a figure that is inconceivable from a human point of view. 40-50% of all this cardiac output is taken by the liver.
2. Blood vessels
This includes veins, arteries and capillaries. We will tell you quickly What do each of these tubular and conductive structures consist of?:
We are before a blood tissue transport system that, if interrupted, can have serious consequences on the individual’s physiology Have you ever heard of a death due to thrombosis? In these cases, a plug or thrombus (generally made of fat or clotted blood) is generated in an artery and, due to normal flow, is transported to an area with a smaller diameter than that from which it originated. When the thrombus cuts off blood flow, the effects on the individual’s physiology can be lethal.
3. Blood
How can we ignore blood, the connective tissue that gives meaning to this entire system? Blood is famous for its transport of oxygen (thanks to red blood cells, specifically hemoglobin, the hemoprotein that transports it), but it also fulfills many other functions at an organic level.
For example, few people know that blood has a high concentration of circulating proteins (especially albumin, which represents up to 55% of the total), which help maintain the oncotic pressure of the plasma and act as transporters of lipids and hormones. steroids. Oncotic pressure, for example, is essential for the functioning of the body, as it allows extracellular fluids and blood volumes to be “in place.” If an imbalance occurs, the famous and feared edema appears, that is, excessive accumulation of fluid under the skin or in certain body cavities.
The composition of blood is distributed in the following way: blood plasma (55%, acellular component) and formed components (the remaining 45%, composed of red blood cells, serum proteins and leukocytes with immune function, among many others).
Between the functions of blood we find the following to be the most relevant:
Curious facts about the cardiovascular system
This is a series of data that exemplify the importance and functionality of the circulatory system at a physiological level Among them, we find the following:
From end to end, and including all the veins, capillaries and arteries, the circulatory system would comprise about 100,000 kilometers.
The heart pumps about 5 liters of blood per minute, that is, almost all of this fluid in the body in just 60 seconds.
The heart and kidneys use about 500 kilocalories daily. Simply pumping and purifying blood accounts for ¼ of the total energy consumed each day.
The heart beats about 80 times per minute, generating enough energy to theoretically move a vehicle.
Among all this mass of data, it catches our attention to discover that The vascular tissue of a human being, if placed in a row, would be enough to circle the Earth itself 2 and a half times 80% of this value corresponds to blood capillaries, units in which veins and arteries branch.
Diseases and considerations
Did you know that, in developed countries, the leading cause of death is ischemic heart disease, only followed by heart attacks? The obstruction of the coronary arteries and blood flow is, as shocking as it may seem, the main reason for death throughout the globe.
For the circulatory system to function at full efficiency, it is essential to keep parameters such as cholesterol or body weight in check.
Overweight (present in more than 1.9 billion inhabitants of the globe) and obesity (650 million of this total number) are proven risk factors for certain cardiovascular pathologies, such as coronary heart disease, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and the appearance of arrhythmias, among many others, not to mention other risks such as colorectal cancer or stomach ulcers.
Definitely: Maintaining a healthy body implies, in almost all cases, reducing the risk of death due to circulatory accidents
Summary
We have made a brief tour of the circulatory system, since covering each and every one of the structures included here would be enough for an entire series of books. If we want you to leave with an idea, this is the following: the heart is the organ that works the most in living beings at a physiological level and, thanks to it, each and every one of the organs and tissues is nourished and allows the excretion of potentially harmful substances.
Errors in the circulatory system are serious Therefore, when blood flow is cut off, isolated cells quickly die irreversibly. Therefore, taking care of yourself on a physical and emotional level is always the best prevention to avoid a vascular accident.
Definition of circulatory system, NIH. Collected on December 26 at https://www.cancer.gov/espanol/publicaciones/diccionario/def/sistema-circulatorio
The circulatory system, Connecticuts children. Collected on December 26 at https://www.connecticutchildrens.org/health-library/es/parents/heart-esp/
Circulatory system, Medlineplus.gov. Collected on December 26 at https://medlineplus.gov/spanish/ency/esp_imagepages/8747.htm
Circulatory system, visiblebody.com. Collected on December 26 at https://www.visiblebody.com/es/learn/circulatory
