WHAT DO YOUR HEART VALVES DO?
You may think you know everything about your heart but you may be missing an important piece of the puzzle. Your ticker is equipped with four heart valves, with the main one being the aortic valve. ‘It’s the valve that controls blood flow coming out of your heart into the rest of your body.
It’s under the greatest stress,’ says Elizabeth Klodas, MD, founder of Preventive Cardiology Consultants in Edina, Minnesota. After all, it’s working overtime for you. ‘It’s amazing that our valves don’t give out when we’re five. The aortic valve opens and closes like a door 60 times a minute 24/7. It’s a resilient, almost miraculous design that can keep going for 100 years-plus,’ she adds.