Heart Anatomy

Anatomy of the Heart Your heart is located under the ribcage in the center of your chest between your right and left lungs. Its muscular walls beat, or contract, pumping blood continuously to all parts of your body. The size of your heart can vary depending on your age, size, and the condition of your heart. A normal, healthy, adult heart most often is the size of an average clenched adult fist. Some diseases of the heart can cause it to become larger. The Exterior of the Heart Below is a picture of the outside of a normal, healthy, human heart. Heart Exterior   The illustration shows the front surface of a heart, including the coronary arteries and major blood vessels. The heart is the muscle in the lower half of the picture. The heart has four chambers. The right and left atria (AY-tree-uh) are shown in purple. The right and left ventricles (VEN-trih-kuls) are shown in red. Some of the main blood vessels—arteries and veins—that make up your blood circulatory system are directly connected to the heart. The ventricle on the right side of your heart pumps blood from your heart to your lungs. When you breathe air in, oxygen passes from your lungs through your blood vessels and into your blood. Carbon dioxide, a waste product, is passed from your blood through blood vessels to your lungs and is removed from your body when you breathe out. The left atrium receives oxygen-rich blood from your lungs. The pumping action of your left ventricle sends this oxygen-rich blood through the aorta (a main artery) to the rest of your body. The Right Side of Your Heart The superior and inferior vena cavae are in blue to the left of the heart muscle as you look at the picture. These veins are the largest veins in your body. After your body's organs and tissues have used the oxygen in your blood, the vena cavae carry the oxygen-poor blood back to the right atrium of your heart. The superior vena cava carries oxygen-poor blood from the upper parts of your body, including your head, chest, arms, and neck. The inferior vena cava carries oxygen-poor blood from the lower parts of your body. The oxygen-poor blood from the vena cavae flows into your heart's right atrium and then on to the right ventricle. From the right ventricle, the blood is pumped through the pulmonary (PULL-mun-ary) arteries (in blue in the center of the picture) to your lungs. There, through many small, thin blood vessels called capillaries, the blood picks up more oxygen. The oxygen-rich blood passes from your lungs back to your heart through the pulmonary veins (in red to the left of the right atrium in the picture). The Left Side of Your Heart Oxygen-rich blood from your lungs passes through the pulmonary veins (in red to the right of the left atrium in the picture). It enters the left atrium and is pumped into the left ventricle. From the left ventricle, the oxygen-rich blood is pumped to the rest of your body through the aorta. Like all of your organs, your heart needs blood rich with oxygen. This oxygen is supplied through the coronary arteries as blood is pumped out of your heart's left ventricle. Your coronary arteries are located on your heart's surface at the beginning of the aorta. Your coronary arteries (shown in red in the drawing) carry oxygen-rich blood to all parts of your heart. The Interior of the Heart Below is a picture of the inside of a normal, healthy, human heart. Heart Interior The illustration shows a cross-section of a healthy heart and its inside structures. The blue arrow shows the direction in which oxygen-poor blood flows from the body to the lungs. The red arrow shows the direction in which oxygen-rich blood flows from the lungs to the rest of the body. The Septum The right and left sides of your heart are divided by an internal wall of tissue called the septum. The area of the septum that divides the atria (the two upper chambers of your heart) is called the atrial or interatrial septum. The area of the septum that divides the ventricles (the two lower chambers of your heart) is called the ventricular or interventricular septum. Heart Chambers The picture shows the inside of your heart and how it's divided into four chambers. The two upper chambers of your heart are called atria. The atria receive and collect blood. The two lower chambers of your heart are called ventricles. The ventricles pump blood out of your heart into the circulatory system to other parts of your body. Heart Valves The picture shows your heart's four valves. Shown counterclockwise in the picture, the valves include the aortic (ay-OR-tik) valve, the tricuspid (tri-CUSS-pid) valve, the pulmonary valve, and the mitral (MI-trul) valve. Blood Flow The arrows in the drawing show the direction that blood flows through your heart. The light blue arrows show that blood enters the right atrium of your heart from the superior and inferior vena cavae. From the right atrium, blood is pumped into the right ventricle. From the right ventricle, blood is pumped to your lungs through the pulmonary arteries. The light red arrows show the oxygen-rich blood coming in from your lungs through the pulmonary veins into your heart's left atrium. From the left atrium, the blood is pumped into the left ventricle. The left ventricle pumps the blood to the rest of your body through the aorta. For the heart to work properly, your blood must flow in only one direction. Your heart's valves make this possible. Both of your heart's ventricles have an "in" (inlet) valve from the atria and an "out" (outlet) valve leading to your arteries. Healthy valves open and close in very exact coordination with the pumping action of your heart's atria and ventricles. Each valve has a set of flaps called leaflets or cusps that seal or open the valves. This allows pumped blood to pass through the chambers and into your arteries without backing up or flowing backward.

Blood Circulation

Systemic circulation is the portion of the cardiovascular system which carries oxygenated blood away from the heart, to the body, and returns deoxygenated blood back to the heart. The term is contrasted with pulmonary circulation

Course

In the systemic circulation, arteries bring oxygenated blood to the tissues. As blood circulates through the body, oxygen diffuses from the blood into cells surrounding the capillaries, and carbon dioxide diffuses into the blood from the capillary cells. Veins bring deoxygenated blood back to the heart.

Arteries

Oxygenated blood enters the systemic circulation when leaving the left ventricle, through the aortic semilunar valve. The first part of the systemic circulation is the artery aorta, a massive and thick-walled artery. The aorta arches and gives off major arteries to the upper body before piercing the diaphragm in order to supply the lower parts of the body with its various branches.

Capillaries

Blood passes from arteries to arterioles and finally to capillaries, which are the thinnest and most numerous of the blood vessels. These capillaries help to join tissue with arterioles for transportation of nutrition to the cells, which absorb oxygen and nutrients in the blood. Peripheral tissues do not fully deoxygenate the blood, so venous blood does have oxygen, but in a lower concentration than in arterial blood. In addition, carbon dioxide and wastes are added. The capillaries can only fit one cell at a time.

Venules

The deoxygenated blood is then collected by venules, from where it flows first into veins, and then into the inferior and superior venae cavae, which return it to the right heart, completing the systemic cycle. The blood is then re-oxygenated through the pulmonary circulation before returning again to the systemic circulation.

Veins

The relatively deoxygenated blood collects in the venous system which coalesces into two major veins: the superior vena cava (roughly speaking from areas above the heart) and the inferior vena cava (roughly speaking from areas below the heart). These two great vessels exit the systemic circulation by emptying into the right atrium of the heart. The coronary sinus empties the heart's veins themselves into the right atrium.

 

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder that has affected people throughout history. About 1 percent of Americans have this illness.¹

People with the disorder may hear voices other people don't hear. They may believe other people are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them. This can terrify people with the illness and make them withdrawn or extremely agitated.

People with schizophrenia may not make sense when they talk. They may sit for hours without moving or talking. Sometimes people with schizophrenia seem perfectly fine until they talk about what they are really thinking.

Families and society are affected by schizophrenia too. Many people with schizophrenia have difficulty holding a job or caring for themselves, so they rely on others for help.

Treatment helps relieve many symptoms of schizophrenia, but most people who have the disorder cope with symptoms throughout their lives. However, many people with schizophrenia can lead rewarding and meaningful lives in their communities. Researchers are developing more effective medications and using new research tools to understand the causes of schizophrenia. In the years to come, this work may help prevent and better treat the illness.

The symptoms of schizophrenia fall into three broad categories: positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive symptoms.

Positive symptoms

Positive symptoms are psychotic behaviors not seen in healthy people. People with positive symptoms often "lose touch" with reality. These symptoms can come and go. Sometimes they are severe and at other times hardly noticeable, depending on whether the individual is receiving treatment. They include the following:

Hallucinations are things a person sees, hears, smells, or feels that no one else can see, hear, smell, or feel. "Voices" are the most common type of hallucination in schizophrenia. Many people with the disorder hear voices. The voices may talk to the person about his or her behavior, order the person to do things, or warn the person of danger. Sometimes the voices talk to each other. People with schizophrenia may hear voices for a long time before family and friends notice the problem.

Other types of hallucinations include seeing people or objects that are not there, smelling odors that no one else detects, and feeling things like invisible fingers touching their bodies when no one is near.

Delusions are false beliefs that are not part of the person's culture and do not change. The person believes delusions even after other people prove that the beliefs are not true or logical. People with schizophrenia can have delusions that seem bizarre, such as believing that neighbors can control their behavior with magnetic waves. They may also believe that people on television are directing special messages to them, or that radio stations are broadcasting their thoughts aloud to others. Sometimes they believe they are someone else, such as a famous historical figure. They may have paranoid delusions and believe that others are trying to harm them, such as by cheating, harassing, poisoning, spying on, or plotting against them or the people they care about. These beliefs are called "delusions of persecution."

Thought disorders are unusual or dysfunctional ways of thinking. One form of thought disorder is called "disorganized thinking." This is when a person has trouble organizing his or her thoughts or connecting them logically. They may talk in a garbled way that is hard to understand. Another form is called "thought blocking." This is when a person stops speaking abruptly in the middle of a thought. When asked why he or she stopped talking, the person may say that it felt as if the thought had been taken out of his or her head. Finally, a person with a thought disorder might make up meaningless words, or "neologisms."

Movement disorders may appear as agitated body movements. A person with a movement disorder may repeat certain motions over and over. In the other extreme, a person may become catatonic. Catatonia is a state in which a person does not move and does not respond to others. Catatonia is rare today, but it was more common when treatment for schizophrenia was not available.

"Voices" are the most common type of hallucination in schizophrenia.

Negative symptoms

Negative symptoms are associated with disruptions to normal emotions and behaviors. These symptoms are harder to recognize as part of the disorder and can be mistaken for depression or other conditions. These symptoms include the following:

• "Flat affect" (a person's face does not move or he or she talks in a dull or monotonous voice)
• Lack of pleasure in everyday life
• Lack of ability to begin and sustain planned activities
• Speaking little, even when forced to interact.

People with negative symptoms need help with everyday tasks. They often neglect basic personal hygiene. This may make them seem lazy or unwilling to help themselves, but the problems are symptoms caused by the schizophrenia.

Cognitive symptoms

Cognitive symptoms are subtle. Like negative symptoms, cognitive symptoms may be difficult to recognize as part of the disorder. Often, they are detected only when other tests are performed. Cognitive symptoms include the following:

• Poor "executive functioning" (the ability to understand information and use it to make decisions)
• Trouble focusing or paying attention
• Problems with "working memory" (the ability to use information immediately after learning it).

Cognitive symptoms often make it hard to lead a normal life and earn a living. They can cause great emotional distress.

Schizophrenia affects men and women equally. It occurs at similar rates in all ethnic groups around the world. Symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions usually start between ages 16 and 30. Men tend to experience symptoms a little earlier than women. Most of the time, people do not get schizophrenia after age 45. Schizophrenia rarely occurs in children, but awareness of childhood-onset schizophrenia is increasing.

It can be difficult to diagnose schizophrenia in teens. This is because the first signs can include a change of friends, a drop in grades, sleep problems, and irritability—behaviors that are common among teens. A combination of factors can predict schizophrenia in up to 80 percent of youth who are at high risk of developing the illness. These factors include isolating oneself and withdrawing from others, an increase in unusual thoughts and suspicions, and a family history of psychosis. In young people who develop the disease, this stage of the disorder is called the "prodromal" period.

Paganism

yo pal . . . lon time no blogging here i'm terribly sorry . . btw i've a new topic it's PAGANISM . . . just enjoy it

Paganism at a glance

Paganism describes a group of contemporary religions based on a reverence for nature. These faiths draw on the traditional religions of indigenous peoples throughout the world.

• Paganism encompasses a diverse community.
• Wiccans, Druids, Shamans, Sacred Ecologists, Odinists and Heathens all make up parts of the Pagan community.
• Some groups concentrate on specific traditions or practices such as ecology, witchcraft, Celtic traditions or certain gods.
• Most Pagans share an ecological vision that comes from the Pagan belief in the organic vitality and spirituality of the natural world.
• Due to persecution and misrepresentation it is necessary to define what Pagans are not as well as what they are. Pagans are not sexual deviants, do not worship the devil, are not evil, do not practice 'black magic' and their practices do not involve harming people or animals.
• The Pagan Federation of Great Britain have no precise figures but estimate that the number of Pagans in the British Isles is between 50,000 and 200,000 (2002)

What do Pagans believe in?

 
Pagans respect nature as divine 
Although Paganism covers a wide spectrum of ideas, these elements sum up the beliefs of the majority.

Nature

The recognition of the divine in nature is at the heart of Pagan belief. Pagans are deeply aware of the natural world and see the power of the divine in the ongoing cycle of life and death. Most Pagans are eco-friendly, seeking to live in a way that minimises harm to the natural environment.

Concepts of the divine

Pagans worship the divine in many different forms, through feminine as well as masculine imagery and also as without gender. The most important and widely recognised of these are the God and Goddess (or pantheons of God and Goddesses) whose annual cycle of procreation, giving birth and dying defines the Pagan year. Paganism strongly emphasises equality of the sexes. Women play a prominent role in the modern Pagan movement, and Goddess worship features in most Pagan ceremonies.

Pagan theology

Paganism is not based on doctrine or liturgy. Many pagans believe 'if it harms none, do what you will'. Following this code, Pagan theology is based primarily on experience, with the aim of Pagan ritual being to make contact with the divine in the world that surrounds them.

Renaissance and revival

History of modern Paganism

Contemporary Paganism is the restoration of indigenous religion, especially that of ancient Europe. Paganism has grown in popularity greatly during the last hundred years. The growth coincides with a decline in Christianity in Europe, and the increase in knowledge of past and distant cultures.

Renaissance, Reformation and Rationalism

Statue of Neptune, Italy © People in Europe became more aware of the art and philosophy of the ancient world during the Renaissance period around 1500 (the word 'Renaissance' means 'rebirth'). Documents rescued after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 introduced people to ideas from before the Middle ages. And although Europe remained Christian the Pagan gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece jostled with the patron saints of Christianity on public monument, and classical philosophy began to change the way people thought about ethics and morality.
In Britain the Reformation of the 1600s transformed England from a Catholic country to a Protestant one. The religious conflict that went along with this change led to the persecution of those who didn't fit the desired religious profile. Religious hysteria (disguised as spiritual cleansing) led to some individuals being described as 'witches'. But these people were not part of any religious movement, merely victims of local feuds and quarrels. A few of them were practitioners of herbal medicine but most were ordinary, conventional citizens.
After the enormous political and intellectual upheavals of the 1600s died away, it became possible to explore ways of thought outside Christianity without fear of instant damnation, and the study of Greek and Roman classics became part of every schoolboy's education.
The name 'Europe' (herself a character in Greek myth) replaced 'Christendom' in the mid-18th century. Influenced by the expansion of trade and colonies an awareness and interest in other cultures and spiritualities grew. This new age of reason during the 17th and 18th Centuries became known as the Enlightenment.

The revival of traditional cultures and ancient traditions

The first Pagan tradition to be restored was that of the Druids in Britain. In the mid-1600s stone circles and other monuments built four and a half thousand years previously began to interest scholars. Some thought that the original Druids (pre-historic tribal people of Europe) had built them. In 1717 one of these scholars, the Irish theologian John Toland, became the first Chosen Chief of the Ancient Druid Order, which became known as the British Circle of the Universal Bond.
By the 19th Century a new outlook was evident as people searched for the fundamental principles of religion by looking at the faiths of different places and times.
Mme Helena Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. Its teachings were based on Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, Neo-Platonic thought, and ancient Egyptian religion. Pagan philosophies, which venerated Nature and were polytheistic, began to be seen as sophisticated contributions to contemporary spirituality.
Runic letter © Across Europe people were rediscovering their indigenous cultures. In northern Europe there was a growing interest in Saxon and Norse traditions. In England, William Morris translated the Icelandic sagas and Cecil Sharp collected village dances and songs.
In Germany Schlegel and Schelling in particular were attracted to the nature religion which they saw behind traditional folk customs, and at the beginning of the 20th century Guido von Liszt pioneered the study of the runes.
In north-east Europe, particularly Lithuania, nationalist movements spread and indigenous languages were reclaimed, traditional tales recorded and the old festivals celebrated. Folk music was part of this reassertion of local identity, preserving traditions which otherwise would have been forgotten.

-Update Later . . need more sources-