There is no sexier boudoir on the planet than the heart. Its beating chambers, flushed with blood, keeping you alive.

The intricacies of the heart are as complex and astonishing as the most baroque of constructions. And the physical reaction of the heart to emotion has placed it at the centre of the lover’s vocabulary. “I love you with all my heart/You have stolen my heart/Be still my beating heart”

It is easy to take for granted the fact that your heart just gets on with the business of beating but what is actually happening in there?

If we take a look at the shell of a cell (the cell membrane), it is made up of lots of tightly controlled gates called membrane transport proteins. In the heart, sodium and calcium (think salt and milk) are moved across the membrane through sodium and calcium channels. Like a bad rom com where the lovers continuously miss each my mere seconds the movement of calcium and sodium creates electricity.

Positively charged sodium, potassium and calcium salts work in partnership with negatively charged chlorine to generate electrical currents as they move across the cell membrane. All the cells of the heart – called cardio myocytes (myo meaning muscle and cyte meaning cell) can create electrical charges but the hub of this activity is the sinoatrial node or SA node. The SA node is your natural pacemaker.

There is a lot of argument among scientists at the moment about the role diet plays in this electrical dance. It is possible that salt in your diet is not having as much effect on your heart as we previously thought. Salty foods also tend to be fatty foods so it may be that salt has been at the bad end of a fatty deal.

One thing is certain – sodium and calcium are essential for your heart. Their electric relationship causes the muscles to contract in that reassuring rhythm we all know and love.

Zoom out from the cells and you find yourself in the chambers of the boudoir, red and thumping. Like a magnificent cathedral the architecture of the left and right atrium and the corresponding ventricles is perfectly designed to pump blood.

From here the network of corridors – veins and arteries – provide a smooth rollercoaster ride taking the blood around your body.

Over time the corridors will become worn. The damage will be quickened if we eat food or are exposed to chemicals that erode the smooth surface of our veins and arteries. Those wicked trans-fats for example. Fat also accumulates around the muscles of the heart creating an extra weight that each beat must struggle to lift. Emotions clearly impact on our heart and stress is possibly as bad as eating too much fat when it comes to strain on the heart. And, like love, some people are just unlucky – a genetic fault that makes the beat irregular, the arteries more sticky, the muscles weaker.

Heart disease is the top cause of death in the UK with about 200 people dying every single day so treat it like a lover.

Nurture it, make it feel great and smile at the idea of those little charged salts electrifying your inner boudoir.