Authors: Bamba, and Delroy Daley of the AUC School of Medicine
Hey friends! It’s Bamba here! I have a question for you: What is the most important organ in your body? Well, if you ask me in the morning before I’d had my breakfast, I may say the stomach…ha-ha. One of the most important organs in your body is the heart! Without it, how could we live? This is why it’s important to keep your heart healthy! Let’s see what cool things we should do to keep a healthy heart!
The heart is like a car engine. You need to keep it in good shape so it can work for a long time. Once a car engine breaks down, the car cannot work anymore – just like the heart. If the heart starts to break down, so will other organs in your body.
What does the heart do?
The heart pumps oxygen-rich blood and nutrients to all the organs in the body in your arteries. Oxygen from the air you breathe enters your lungs and uses the blood as a taxi to reach their destinations. The strong pump from your heart helps return the oxygen-poor blood back to your heart in your veins.
Did you know that the heart is a muscle?
Well, how else did you think the blood got pushed from your heart all the way to your tippy toes and back to the heart? That means the heart has to be very strong. Since the heart is a muscle, what do people normally do to get muscles strong? They exercise! When you exercise, the heart must pump more blood and faster than before, because your organs need more oxygen to do more work during exercise. This means less video games and more football – yes!
Did you know that what you eat can affect your heart health?
Fried foods, cheeseburgers, and ice cream are examples of fatty foods, and if you eat them too often, little fat particles can bunch up together in your arteries and veins and make it harder for your blood to pass. This can cause high blood pressure that forces the heart to work harder than it has to, which is not good for your heart’s health.
Did you know that the heart beats to a rhythm?
It’s like the heart beats on a drum in your chest to keep you happy and dancing. When you go to the doctor’s office for a check-up, the doctor listens to the rhythm of your heart and it sounds like this: Lub-Dub. Cool, right? To see if this is true, ask your parents or sibling(s) if you can listen to their heartbeat to see if it makes the lub-dub sound.
Quick quiz! Circle the correct word:
A person’s heart will beat (faster / slower) if they eat a lot of fatty foods over time. We’ll let you know in the next edition of The KIDS Herald if you got it right!
Well, there you have it! I must admit that I am kind of sad that I have to put down the ice cream and pick up broccoli instead. But if it leads to me living a longer and healthier life, then I will do it any day!
Until next time friends,
~Bamba Out!
