Heart Disease

The heart is a powerful pump made of specialized muscle. It normally pumps enough blood to supply the body's needs. In most people, the heart does this by beating about 60 to 70 times a minute, while at rest, throughout a person's life.

Sometimes, following damage to the heart from illness (such as after a heart attack, viral infection, or some other illness), this pump action may weaken. The heart is then unable to supply enough blood to meet the body's needs.

This is called heart failure.

Blood enters the left side of the heart from the lungs, where it has been "recharged" with oxygen.

The blood is then pumped out to every part of the body. Blood carries nutrients and oxygen to all tissues of the body and it carries waste materials to the liver and kidney for excretion. It then returns to the right side of the heart to be pumped back to the lungs to load up with oxygen again.