One of our most important organs, the heart has long been a source of life, love, and emotions. The heart was, in fact, seen as so vital that the ancient Greeks retained a cardio centric view of the body; they considered the heart not only responsible for emotions, but for the very nature of rational thinking. This book will give you a glimpse into the curious heart history as an organ that sustains life but also as a symbol that inspired cultures around the world. A short warning before we start: The chapters in the book contain graphic descriptions of surgery and animal experiments.
In this book you will also discover:
- What a Japanese octopus pot has to do with heart disease;
- How one eccentric young surgeon decided self-surgery was the way to advance science;
- Why the problem of fatty plaque in the arteries just vanished with a puff.
The heart is not just our go-to symbol for expressing love and courage when we want to. Obviously, it is a highly sensitive and complex organ. This response to our lifestyles, to anxiety and stress, and even to feel like sorrow and sadness. Luckily several surgical procedures were created to extend the lifetime of the heart and cure heart defects. Through cross-circulation procedures in the early twentieth century, to more modern practices such as coronary angioplasty, much has been done to save and improve the lives of heart disease sufferers.