Things of my Heart

In case it wasn't already official, it has now been verified - I am a nerd. I'm taking physiology right now, which is possibly the coolest class I have ever had. My roommates can attest that I get so excited about physiological concepts that they sometimes receive unsolicited explanations of how NSAIDs work or why the heart can never have tetanus. (If the concept is particularly exciting, it may be the first thing I tell a roommate in the morning, obviously preempting "good morning.")

The past couple days, my studies have focused on the heart. As I sat the other night looking at a diagram of the phases of a heartbeat, trying to remember exactly what was going on in the process, I could almost hear my heart speak to me (not in a love-sick type of way, or the like the normal heart sounds at the closing of the valves, but actual words) - "The whole 24 hours you've been trying to figure that out, I've been sitting here in your chest doing it. Several thousand times." That realization made me smile inwardly, glad that my heart didn't have to wait for me to understand systole and isovolumic contraction before it would carry out the task. It was humbling to realize that all of these physiological processes which are sometimes difficult to grasp are going on constantly inside my body. When I'm getting chased by a bear, I don't even have to think about it and my body will release epinephrine, which will bind to the beta-1 receptors in my pacemaker cells of my heart, enhancing the action of the funny channels (that's actually the real name . . .) so that more Na+ can flow out of the cells, thus decreasing the time it takes for the cells to depolarize, allowing them to send action potentials more rapidly which causes my heart to beat faster so that more blood is sent to my skeletal muscles so I can beat the bear to my car and not die. How cool is that!?

I'm basically floored by the complexity and majesty of the human body. There are so many intricate, delicate processes - so many opportunities for something to go wrong. But look at all of us: we're all alive! Our colloid osmotic pressure is great, our hearts are pumping, our action potentials are firing, and we're able to go about our daily lives, well-taken care of by our amazing bodies. If that's not a witness of a Supreme Creator, I don't know what is.

Comments

  1. StefOctober 30, 2011 at 10:40 PM

    Apparently I am not the only "nerd". I find the systems and processes of the body equally amazing. Thanks for sharing :)

    ReplyDelete

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