Understanding how your heart works can be helpful for maintaining good health and understanding the importance of building healthy habits. The heart is one of the hardest-working, most energy-demanding organs in your body, requiring a steady supply of fuel to keep up with its constant workload.
It's common knowledge that to keep your heart healthy, a proper balance of exercise, good nutrition, and stress management are important. Before taking action, it’s important to know why heart health matters in the first place. By understanding the basics of the cardiovascular system, you’ll feel more confident in making informed choices for a healthier heart and a stronger future. This guide will walk you through the fundamental aspects of your cardiovascular system, from how your heart powers itself to the role of circulation and cellular energy.
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Meet Your Heart
Your heart is an extraordinary organ, tirelessly pumping blood to every corner of your body. Here’s how it works:
Basic Heart Anatomy and Function
The heart is made up of four chambers: the two atria and the two ventricles. These chambers work together to pump blood throughout your body, delivering oxygen and nutrients to your organs and tissues. The rhythmic closing of the heart valves as blood is pumped in and out of the chambers of the heart results in the “lub-dub” sound of the heart heard when using a stethoscope.
Every day, your heart processes around 2,000 gallons of blood — an impressive workload that requires a lot of energy to maintain. This process allows blood vessels to distribute vital nutrients, oxygen, and electrolytes throughout the body, nourishing all of your cells while removing waste products and toxins. The blood vessels also relax and constrict and your heart rate adjusts with different activities, allowing for blood to flow where it is needed as you move through your day. This process of blood circulation and adjustments of the system ensure the health of cells, tissues, and organs all over the body.
Energy Demands and Usage
Despite only making up about 0.5% of your body weight, the heart uses approximately 8% of your body’s total energy supply. It doesn’t store molecules used for energy for long, relying on a continuous creation of cellular energy to keep beating. Each heartbeat demands a burst of cellular energy. The heart’s cells must constantly create cellular energy molecules to keep up with this relentless pace.
How the Heart Powers Itself
At the cellular level, your heart relies on tiny powerhouses called mitochondria — and it has thousands of them in every heart cell (between 5,000 and 8,000 per cell). These mitochondria generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the molecule that, when its bonds are broken, creates energy that fuels your heartbeat. Because your heart never stops, ATP production must be continuous. As part of this process, your body relies on naturally occurring compounds like CoQ10. CoQ10 has two forms, both of which participate in the production of ATP: 1) ubiquinone, and 2) ubiquinol. Ubiquinol is also an antioxidant that helps protect cells from harmful free radicals created during the process of making ATP. Maintaining an optimal balance of ubiquinone and ubiquinol is important to maintaining cellular energy production.
Curious about how ubiquinol supports mitochondrial function? Learn more about the antioxidant your body needs to run.
The Importance of Circulation
The movement of blood, or circulation, plays two important roles. Circulation is how oxygen and nutrients are delivered to your organs. The body also uses the movement of blood to rid the body of toxins.
Your heart doesn’t work alone — it relies on a vast network of blood vessels and other systems to circulate blood where it needs to go. These vessels are classified into three types:
- Arteries: carry blood away from the heart
- Veins: carry blood back to the heart
- Capillaries: tiny vessels that allow nutrient and oxygen exchange from blood vessels into tissues
A healthy, flexible system of blood vessels is necessary for proper circulation.
Understanding Blood Flow
For blood to move efficiently, your vessels must stay flexible and allow blood to flow freely. Nitric oxide (NO) plays a key role in this process by signaling blood vessels to widen, a process known as vasodilation. Healthy vasodilation allows for healthy blood flow and blood pressure, but factors like aging and oxidative stress can reduce nitric oxide production, impacting the health of the circulatory system.
Importance of Vessel Health
Healthy blood vessels keep your cardiovascular system working efficiently. Signs of good circulation include normal skin color, warm extremities, and a strong pulse. Maintaining a healthy circulatory system and healthy blood vessels supports heart health by reducing unnecessary strain on the heart and ensuring the heart receives the nutrients and oxygen it needs to function properly.
Heart Health By The Numbers: The Ultimate Guide
Heart Health at the Cellular Level
Understanding what happens at the cellular level reveals the connection between mitochondria and heart health - a fascinating system where energy production and antioxidant defense mechanisms work together to maintain cardiac function.
Related: Heart Health Terms You Need To Know
Energy Production Simplified
At the cellular level, your body’s cells produce energy through a process called cellular respiration, which occurs in the mitochondria. As cellular energy is created, so are free radicals, which can damage cells and tissues. Ubiquinol is a critical component of this cellular energy production process and also helps neutralize free radical by-products. When ubiquinol levels naturally decline with age, the process of creating cellular energy and neutralizing free radicals becomes less efficient.
Role of Antioxidants
The science behind how antioxidants protect heart health is remarkable. Every second, your body generates free radicals. A buildup of free radicals results in oxidative stress, which, over time, can impact the health of cell membranes. To counter this process, your body produces and absorbs antioxidants, which helps neutralize these harmful molecules. Ubiquinol is a powerful, naturally occurring antioxidant that can help protect the body against oxidative stress.
Importance of Mitochondria
You might remember from school that mitochondria are often referred to as the “powerhouse of the cell.” These energy factories produce the ATP needed to fuel all cellular processes in the body, including heart muscle contractions. Research has shown that mitochondrial health is directly linked to cardiovascular health, and supporting your mitochondria with adequate ubiquinol can help maintain healthy cells, tissues, and the energy production necessary for optimal heart function.
Understanding Ubiquinol Levels in the Body
As we age, the body becomes less efficient in creating ubiquinol. Since ubiquinol plays an important role in supporting mitochondrial health and acting as an antioxidant, taking a Kaneka Ubiquinol® supplement can promote a healthy balance of ubiquinol and CoQ10 in the body.
Dive Deeper: What is Ubiquinol?
Your Heart, Your Power
You only have one heart. By understanding how it functions — from its energy demands to the importance of circulation and cellular health — you can take a more informed approach to the entirety of your health.
When you understand how energy production, blood flow, and vessel health work together, you gain the confidence to make decisions that support long-term wellness. Need a next step on your heart health journey? Our articles and resources can help you navigate to a healthier life with clarity and confidence.
