a reply to:
Pearj
The heart has never been on the left side of the chest and it's not in the center now; it is slightly distal from the left lateral aspect of the
mediastinum where it has always been.
You have two arteries in your wrist; the ulnar (pinky side) and radial (thumb side, and it extends into the thumb, which is why you NEVER check for a
pulse with your thumb). The space in between the ulna and radius (the two corresponding bones of the arm that give the arteries their names) has no
major blood vessels. They would be vulnerable to injury, were they located in the center...primarily due to being pinched by tendons and muscles
during normal arm movements, of which we make millions throughout the day.
The blood circulates...arterial blood, which is oxygenated, pumps out of the heart and is carried by arteries to the organs and delivers the oxygen
which powers the brain and nourishes the other organ systems. It is then pushed into the venous system, sans oxygen, where it continues in a circular
fashion back to the heart to be reoxygenated and then pumped out again into the arterial system. This is why arteries spurt and veins drip.
The arteries in the extremities are dependent upon each other for that circulation. They have to create the upward momentum of the arterial push to
keep the circle going. If one or the other of those arteries is occluded, the blood flow cannot be completed and the tissue, lacking the oxygen to
nourish it, begins to die. Occlude them long enough, and you lose that limb...longer still and the brain will be damaged, just from those small
arteries inhibiting the flow of blood.
If our arteries were in the carpal tunnel, in the middle, not only would their size and independent pumping action cause them to compress each other,
effectively blocking blood flow, they would also be completely unprotected...we'd never be able to wear a watch or be placed in handcuffs or anything
constricting; and every time we lifted something or dribbled a ball or any other action that involves the fine muscles, we'd be cutting off oxygen to
our vital organs...including the brain, which enables us to make those movements in the first place.
Familiarize yourself with not only the anatomy, but also the physiology of the human body, and you will see why what you are suggesting is medically
impossible. If you've ever checked a pulse in the center of the wrist, it's not the Mandela Effect...you've simply been doing it wrong.
The kidneys are very large organs. If they were not protected by the ribcage, and were situated where you (and millions of other people...this is a
very common mistake) think they're supposed to be, they'd be directly under the skin...and one good fall from a ladder or tree onto the back would
kill a person. Not only that, if these large, easily damaged organs were in the lower back, they'd be compressed and unable to receive adequate
circulation, and the ureters, which carry urine to the bladder, and the bladder itself would also be squished, unable to function properly. It's a
trickle-down effect, if you'll pardon the pun.
All of our "tubing" depends upon the ability to expand and maintain adequate flow, and all of our organs depend on the tubing to deliver nutrients and
oxygen and waste to the proper location. That is why they're strategically placed. Take the stomach and point it straight down, it pushes into the
diaphragm and intestines...suddenly we cannot breathe or digest food properly.
Push the kidneys down into the lower back, compressing the lower intestine, the liver, the ureters and bladder, the pancreas and spleen, the stomach
and the heart, as well as the abdominal aorta, femoral arteries and numerous nerve centers that send signals to and from the brain and CNS, suddenly
we cannot urinate, defecate, breathe, digest, filter toxins, or regulate hormones and nutrients properly. Most people would never make it to
adolescence.
Additionally, if the anatomy were rearranged where all of the largest major organs are located primarily in the abdominal cavity, there would be a
useless expanse of empty space left in the thoracic cavity and the heart would have to work overtime to pump oxygenated blood to the other organs
because they'd be such a distance from it. It would become huge and unable to beat properly, and we would quickly die of congestive heart failure.
I could give you numerous reasons in addition to those why the organ placement that you are describing make no sense medically...pages worth. I am in
fact oversimplifying for this context. There are many things wrong with the depictions of human anatomy currently on the internet, but I'm sorry...the
ones you are have cited here are not any of those.
In almost two decades of clinical patient care in emergency medicine, I have heard some pretty wild beliefs from patients and their families. One of
the most common of those is the placement of the kidneys. People present with lower back pain and insist they've got "kidney pain". Often it takes
being shown their own radiology films to prove otherwise, so stubborn is their conviction that the kidneys sit in the lumbar region rather than the
thoracic. And just as commonly, their point of reference is boxing, UFC fights, wrestling or movies and TV shows like ER.
As one doc put it, "kidney shot" sounds a whole lot more devastating to an audience than "sharp jab to the lower back muscle", doesn't it? Absolutely,
it does, and that is exactly why fight announcers say things like that.
It's a very wise idea to get your medical knowledge from an actual doctor rather than boxing matches and the internet. Incorrect assumptions about
signs of a heart attack or stroke contribute on a routine basis to the deaths from those ailments every day, despite the abundant public warnings to
the contrary from the medical community, yet those beliefs continue to persist...and people continue to die because they and others around them do not
recognize the actual common signs of stroke and heart attacks.
But don't take my word for it. Go see your physician, and tell him or her that you thought the radial artery was located in the carpal space between
the bones of your wrist. Tell him/her that you thought your heart was located behind your left ribcage rather than nestled in the cardiac notch. Tell
your doc that you thought your kidneys were just above your pelvic girdle, riding the sacrum and lateral aspects of the iliac crest; that you thought
this despite the fact that human fetuses also grow within that same abdominal cavity. Ask your physician, who is actually licensed to practice
medicine, what he or she thinks about your current understanding of human anatomy.
I am not trying to be harsh...I have experienced a number of these things myself. But some of them I really did remember wrong, and I would be remiss
if I did not speak up when I see someone else falling into that same trap.