Dr. Usman's Cardiology Notes

 Your heart, that throbbing, beating muscle, is probably the most iconic organ in your body. No other organ gets its own holiday, or as much radio play. And you’re not likely to get a love note decorated with a kidney or a spleen, or even a brain, which is really what rules the emotions. Don’t get me wrong, the heart does some great things -- namely, it powers the entire circulatory system, transporting nutrients, oxygen, waste, heat, hormones, and immune cells throughout the body, over and over. But in the end, the heart does not make you love. It doesn’t break apart if you get dumped by your boo. And it’s not a lonely hunter. The truth is, the heart is really just a pump -- a big, wet, muscley brute of a pump. And it doesn’t care about poetry or chocolate, or why you’re crying. The heart only has one concern: maintaining pressure. If you’ve ever squeezed the trigger on a squirt gun or opened up a shaken can of soda, you’ve seen how fluids flow from areas of high pressure -- like ...