Can your brain function without your heart?
The cerebral cortex of the brain, Parnia explained, that is responsible for thinking and processing the information from the five senses, also shows no activity within 2 and 20 seconds of the heart stopping. No brain waves can thus be detected there. This starts the slow death of the brain cells.
Many people would probably think it's the heart, however, it's the brain! While your heart is a vital organ, the brain (and the nervous system that attaches to the brain) make up the most critical organ system in the human body.
Well, technically speaking, your body can still be alive without a brain. On the other hand, it's pretty difficult for your body to be alive without a heart. In either circumstance, the quality of life is pretty poor without one or the other!
Brain death can occur when the blood and/or oxygen supply to the brain is stopped. This can be caused by: cardiac arrest – when the heart stops beating and the brain is starved of oxygen.
Permanent brain damage begins after only 4 minutes without oxygen, and death can occur as soon as 4 to 6 minutes later.
The heart is the first organ to form during development of the body.
Research has shown that the heart communicates to the brain in four major ways: neurologically (through the transmission of nerve impulses), biochemically (via hormones and neurotransmitters), biophysically (through pressure waves) and energetically (through electromagnetic field interactions).
Recent findings: Dr. Armour, in 1991, discovered that the heart has its "little brain" or "intrinsic cardiac nervous system." This "heart brain" is composed of approximately 40,000 neurons that are alike neurons in the brain, meaning that the heart has its own nervous system.
Your heart pumps blood through vessels to every part of your body, including your brain. Damage to blood vessels can lead to serious health conditions such as heart disease, stroke, and dementia. Keeping your blood vessels healthy can help you have a strong heart and brain.
The brain is arguably the most important organ in the human body. It controls and coordinates actions and reactions, allows us to think and feel, and enables us to have memories and feelings—all the things that make us human.
Does the brain or heart determine death?
Defining death as the cessation of brain functioning seems to be a better definition than heart functioning. Hearts stop and can be restarted. Cardiac arrest isn't always fatal. But when the brain stops functioning there is no recovery.
It's well known that a comatose brain can be kept alive for at least decades. That is the case with brain-dead people whose families elect to keep them attached to ventilating machines. Less well explored are artificial means of maintaining a brain wholly separated from its body.
