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The heart is the central organ of the circulatory system, and pumps blood into the blood vessels which carry it to all the body parts. All these events occur with each heartbeat. The average heart rate in a normal person is 72 beats per minute, so one can imagine the speed at which blood flows through the body.
One primary function of the circulatory system is the transport of oxygen from the lungs to the cells. This is why the system has two basic parts: the pulmonary circulation, which takes blood to the lungs to pick up oxygen, and systemic circulation, which takes the oxygenated blood throughout the body.