Cardiovascular System – its functions and components

Circulatory system, or cardiovascular system, in humans, includes the combined functions of the heart, blood, and blood vessels. It transports oxygen and nutrients to organs and tissues throughout the body and carry away waste products. Among its vital functions, the circulatory system increases the flow of blood to meet increased energy demands during exercise and regulates body temperature. In addition, when foreign substances or organisms invade the body, the circulatory system swiftly conveys disease-fighting elements of the immune system, such as white blood cells and antibodies, to regions under attack. Also, in the case of injury or bleeding, the circulatory system sends clotting cells and proteins to the affected site, which quickly stop bleeding and promote healing.

The heart, blood, and blood vessels are the three structural elements that make up the circulatory system. The heart is the engine of the circulatory system. It is divided into four chambers: the right atrium, the right ventricle, the left atrium, and the left ventricle. The walls of these chambers are made of a special muscle called myocardium, which contracts continuously and rhythmically to pump blood. The pumping action of the heart occurs in two stages for each heart beat: diastole, when the heart is at rest; and systole, when the heart contracts to pump deoxygenated blood toward the lungs and oxygenated blood to the body. During each heartbeat, typically about 60 to 90 ml (about 2 to 3 oz) of blood are pumped out of the heart. If the heart stops pumping, death usually occurs within four to five minutes.

Blood consists of three types of cells: oxygen-bearing red blood cells, disease-fighting white blood cells, and blood-clotting platelets, all of which are carried through blood vessels in a liquid called plasma. Plasma is yellowish and consists of water, salts, proteins, vitamins, minerals, hormones, dissolved gases, and fats. 

(Encarta Encyclopedia)

The combined length of arteries, veins and capillaries in a human body

If all the arteries, veins, and capillaries in the human body were placed end to end, the total length would equal more than 100,000 km (more than 60,000 miles — they could stretch around the earth nearly two and a half times. 

(Encarta Encyclopedia)

Mental Energy - Feel the Flow of Enthusiasm

Call it drive, vigor, enthusiasm, or get-up-and-go. Call it zest, gusto, razzmatazz, or just plain oomph. It's what gives you ambition, puts a sparkle in your eye, and fills your day with spirit and glow. It's what makes you jump out of bed in the morning, fill your lungs with air, and charge out the front door ready to take on the entire world.

We're talking about the greatest form of energy on earth. It doesn't come from oil, coal, or natural gas. It comes from your mind.

When the energy is flowing, really flowing, nothing, but nothing, can stop you. You feel powerful, brilliant, and tremendously alive. You feel like King Kong with a Ph.D. But, when the energy stops flowing-ugh. You feel like Dr. Kong after he fell from the Empire State Building.

If you're like most people, your energy flow can get a little erratic from time to time, and you'd like to do something about it. You'd like to boost the wattage and assure yourself of a steady, never-ending supply of power.  Well? Don't just lie there like a big ape sprawled out on a Manhattan sidewalk! Read the sections below under the following headings:

A. The Brain in the Energetic Lane

B. Energy Is a State of Mind

C. A Deeper Sense of Self       

D. The Will to Succeed

E. Of Body and Mind

The Eightfold Buddhist Path -- freeing oneself from suffering rooted in ignorance

Buddha’s first teaching to his disciples is reported to have been the “First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma.” The Sanskrit word dharma has many shades of meaning. In its original Vedic context, it meant "duty" in the sense of social obligation, such as the obligation one feels as a member of a particular caste. In a Buddhist context, however, the meaning of dharma is closer to "truth" or "reality" (or even law," as in law of nature).

The Buddha's first teaching asserted four "truths about the nature of reality. The first was that ordinary life is characterized by suffering -- physical suffering, emotional suffering, and a sort of angst inherent in day-to-day existence. The second truth was that the cause of this suffering is the desire that follows from all beings' ignorance of the true nature of reality. The third truth was that it is possible to attain a state of being in which suffering is extinguished. The fourth truth concerned the Eightfold Path leading to that state.