The Cardiovascular System Short Paper

The Cardiovascular System Short Paper The cardiovascular system is a body-wide network of blood, blood vessels, and lymph. It is powered by the heart, it is the body’s distribution system to organs with oxygen, hormones and essential nutrients that help it function properly (Healthline, 2015). This system helps to fight off disease, helps the body maintain a normal body temperature, and provides the right chemical balance to provide the body’s homeostasis, or state of balance among all its systems. The cardiovascular system has four major components, the most significant being the heart. (Live Science, 2016). The heart is the body 's engine. It is responsible for pumping blood through a large network of vessels. This organ works continuously, beating 100,000 times a day, and 40 million times a year. It keeps the body freshly supplied with oxygen and nutrients, while clearing away harmful waste materials. The heart is roughly the size of a clenched fist and sits in the middle of the chest, behind the breastbone and between the lungs, in a chamber that is protected by the rib cage. It 's made up of a special kind of muscle (cardiac muscle) that works involuntarily, so we don 't have to think about using it. (National Geographic). The heart wall is made of 3 layers. The epicardium, myocardium and endocardium. The epicardium is the outermost layer of the heart wall and is just another name for the visceral layer of the pericardium. Thus, the epicardium is a thin layer of…