About Your Heart

Your heart is a pump which moves blood around your body. It functions so that oxygen and nutrients, which are carried in the blood, can be delivered to all parts of the body. It also carries away any unwanted by-products and waste such as carbon dioxide.

The heart has four chambers – two on the left side and two on the right. The two top chambers are called the atria, and the two lower chambers are called the ventricles. The left and the right sides of the heart are separated by a muscular wall called the septum

Each chamber has valves to ensure that blood only passes one way through the heart. The heart diagram below shows the names of the different parts and the arrows show the direction of blood flow.