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How Your Heart Works
Your
heart is a powerful, muscular pump. Its continuous pumping action keeps
your body supplied with oxygen-rich blood. The cycle begins when oxygen-depleted
blood returns from your body and is pumped through your heart and into
your lungs. After your lungs replenish the blood with oxygen, the oxygen-rich
blood flows back into another part of your heart, where the pumping action
forces it back out to your body.
Valves are essential to your heart's pumping function. Your heart has
four valves, or tissue flaps, that open and close, allowing blood to move
between your heart's four chambers. Each valve controls the flow of blood,
causing it to flow forward into the next chamber.
When your heart's valve or valves become diseased, the pumping ability
decreases.
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