Conversations on Cardiac Physiology

Book excerpt: This book addresses and corrects widespread misconceptions regarding heart physiology. Such misconceptions include: the voltage in cells is attributed to potassium ion concentration differences between the extracellular and intracellular compartments, which are the same in all organs of the body, whereas the voltage in cells of these same organs vary widely. This book argues that depolarisation and repolarisation can be explained by electron outflow and mitochondrial production, respectively; and that the trigger for internal calcium ion release is calcium ions bound to the inner leaflet of the cell membrane. In the book, Starling’s Law is contrasted with contractility increase, and it is posited that hypertension is not caused by salty diet, coronary artery disease risk is not correlated with total cholesterol (rather, only with some specific cholesterols), and that drug administration should be titrated.