Does our soul make our heart beat?

To my knowledge, science has not been able to show what it is that makes our hearts beat (i.e. what keeps us alive). Is this true?

What is it that makes our heart beat?

 

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signals form the brain stem to the heart control the beat, no soul necessary

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How is the brain capable of generating these signals?

 

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energy from our food powers everything in our bodies, including our brain, then our brain in turn tells the stomach to digest, and the heart to beat

 

is it possible to be perfectly healthy and still die?

 

no, if your body, and your brain still work firne then you will not die, if your organs, brain or vital muscles fail to work then you die

 

But there are people who seem to have died without any apparent organ malfunction right?

 

their brain, if their brain damages itself then they would die

 

People don't just suddenly die for no reason. If you die, it's because you body has malfunctioned in some way.

 

The heart as a pacemaker region if I can remember correctly and just the frequency of the heartbeat is regulated externally.'

Well...my memory is not infallable, so sue me if I am wrong.

 

there are currently studies involving aging in mice. When some genes are turned off, the mice do not appear to age at all. However, around the normal maximum-age range, they still die.

This question is not as scientifically clear-cut as high-school science would like people to believe....


edit: the above was an anecdote from a college prof; the only reference I could find RE: longevity and genetics was a mention here:
http://www-ermm.cbcu.cam.ac.uk/99001441h.htm

 

Yes, I remember something about that as well. Though unlike Spurious, I am not to be sued if wrong.

 

Heart is a muscle...so contractions from electrical signals from the brain?

and

..are very different questions...Which one do you want an answer for?

 

The heart beats because it has its own pacemaker called the SA Node which is in the right atrium of the heart. It is a bundle of nerve cells that sends out a rhythm that will sustain a pulse rate of about 100 beats a minute without any direction from the brain. The body's parasympathic nervous sytem will slow this rate to perhaps 60 beats a minute for a young, healthy, resting male. Demands on the body will cause the sympathetic nervous system to increase the heart rate up to as much as a couple of hundred beats a minute. You're close to death if it's running that fast though, and I've pulled that last figure out of the air; I don't really remember from class exactly what it was.

 

People die of "natural causes" and one of these is old age. I suppose that if you say a person naturally died of old age you could dissect every organ in his/her body and say that this or that one was not sufficiently healthy enough to prolong existence, and then you could compile a huge list of every problem, but the point is that aging and the resulting death is inevitable and a fact of life.

Anyways, that's off the thread. "Does our soul make our heart beat?" No. The heart beats because of biological evolutionary reasons. We evolved from fish that first had no heart. They had an open circulatory blood system. Then some had a two chamber heart, then three chamber, and we now have four.

Further, unfortunately, we have no proof that the concept and reality of a soul even exists. Its more of a religous postulation with no scientific evidence.

 

I would like to know

 

Heart cells produced by stem cells will beat in a petri dish.
No soul required.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/02/stem-cell-research-heart-disease-long-qt

 

What is this doing in the biology forum for it has no scientific merit at all.

 

Mod Hat — Closure

Mod Hat — Closure

To the one, I would contest the lack of merit. After all, if people are as stupid as our discussions around Sciforums routinely suggest, then yes, this old thread could reasonably be argued to have educational merit.

To the other, it's clear that some people find greater merit in complaining than being useful.

To a third, while I do not specifically criticize this year's attempted necromancy, neither do I see its utility.

Thread closed.