The Beat of Life

A surgeon reveals the secrets of the heart

Reinhard Friedl, Shirley Seul, Gert Reifarth

• Publisher: Black Inc.
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781743821534
• Topic: Médecine
• Subtopic: Biostatistiques

The heart is our most important – and perhaps most mysterious – organ. Every day it pumps 9000 litres of blood and beats around 100,000 times.
But the heart is more than just a pump. In all major human cultures, it is seen as the source of love, sympathy, joy, courage, strength and wisdom. Why is this so?
Having witnessed the extraordinary complexity and unpredictability of human hearts in the operating theatre – each one individual in its make-up, like a fingerprint – heart surgeon Reinhard Friedl went on a search for answers.
He examined closely the latest findings in neurocardiology and psychocardiology, and in The Beat of Life he shares his discoveries. In the tradition of Giulia Enders' Gut and Norman Doidge's The Brain That Changes Itself, he uses riveting personal stories to illustrate the complex relationship between the heart, the brain and the psyche.
The Beat of Life ends with a plea: that we recognise the heart's wisdom and adopt a more heart-centred way of living, which will lead to greater health.

INDEX

A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking) 218

adrenal glands 79–80, 153

adrenaline 79–80, 153, 177, 195, 259

Alexander, Eben (Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife) 6, 160

American Heart Association 240

amygdala 103, 227

anaesthetic 40, 45, 70, 170–1, 202, 259

anaesthetist 4, 31, 39, 99, 144, 146, 254

Anahata (Sanskrit) 119

angina pectoris 4, 11, 103

antibiotic treatment 54

anticoagulants 39, 52

antidepressants 103–4, 109, 203

antiseptic 65

aorta 6, 8, 27–8, 30, 31–7, 64, 139, 144, 162, 256, 258

aorta descendens (descending aorta) 142–3

aortic arch 37, 142

aortic clamp 34–6, 38

aortic valve 32, 35

aphrodisiacs 195–6

apoplexy 103

Aristotle 4, 74

arrhythmia 4–5, 11, 61, 75, 200–1, 204, 208–9, 234

arteria subclavia (subclavian artery) 31, 142–3

arteries 7–8, 22, 24, 31–2, 35, 37, 61–2, 78, 143–4, 187, 191, 224, 253 see also brain arteries; coronary arteries; lung arteries

arteriosclerosis 61, 103, 108

artery calcification (plaque) 61

artificial heart 2, 4, 51–2, 252–7 see also heart transplants; ‘total artificial heart’; ventricular assist device (VAD)

artificial heart valve 54–5

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