The Dynamic Heart and Circulation

The Dynamic Heart and Circulation

Written by doctors, scientists, and teachers, the contributions in this book present a dynamic picture of the circulatory system that both balances and puts into perspective the prevailing one-sided mechanical explanations that dominate science and medical education. High school and medical students today don’t usually learn “the heart has functions that can be interpreted in terms of a pressure pump”; rather, they learn “the heart is a pump,” meaning that’s all it is. When a metaphor is taken as a fact and becomes the sole lens through which one looks, the richness of reality recedes behind the sharp and narrow focus. One aim of this book is to transcend this narrow view and to begin to restore life to our understanding of the heart and circulation.

This book will fill a long-existing void in the literature. It will stimulate teachers, health professionals, scientists and lay people seeking a dynamic perspective on human physiology that is both detailed and comprehensive.

“This excellent book, easily understandable for most readers, gives us a living picture of the heart … The heart is revealed to be a wonder of biological design that performs many more functions in the human organism than generally understood until now.” –Ronald Koetzsch, from a book review in Renewal (Spring/Summer 2003)

Contents:

1. The Heart: A Pulsing and Perceptive Center by Craig Holdrege
2. The Polarity of Center and Periphery in the Circulatory System by Heinrich Brettschneider
3. The Physiology of Circulation: A Reappraisal by Hermann Lauboeck
4. A Dynamic Morphology of the Cardiovascular System by Wolfgang Schad
5. Patterns in the Evolution of the Heart and Circulatory System by Christiane Liesche
6. The Embryonic Development of the Cardiovascular System by Matthias Woernle with a Preface by Heinrich Brettschneider

Appendix A: Heart Anatomy
Appendix B: The Hydraulic Ram