You can feel it and you can hear it beating! We probably don’t think about our hearts often but it is the most vital organ of our body that keeps us alive. Overall, it affects the health and well-being of our body.
But the question is, how much do you really know about your heart? Here are 20 interesting facts about the human heart that will help you better appreciate this vital organ.
- The average adult heart beats 72 times a minute; 100,000 times a day; 3,600,000 times a year; and 2.5 billion times during a lifetime.
- Though weighing only 11 ounces on average, a healthy heart pumps 2,000 gallons of blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels each day.
- A kitchen faucet would need to be turned on all the way for at least 45 years to equal the amount of blood pumped by the heart in an average lifetime.
- The pressure a human heart generates is strong enough to squirt blood thirty feet across a room.
- All of the blood in your body travels through your heart once a minute.
- Because the heart has its own electrical impulse, it can continue to beat even when separated from the body, as long as it has an adequate supply of oxygen.
- Modesty prompted the invention of the stethoscope. Before it existed, the doctors had to press their ears directly to each patient’s chest.
- The “thump-thump” of a heartbeat is the sound made by the four valves of the heart closing.
- Grab a tennis ball and squeeze it tightly: that’s how hard the beating heart works to pump blood.
- The Blue Whale has the largest heart— weighing over 1,500 pounds.
- A woman’s average heartbeat is faster than a man’s by almost 8 beats a minute.
- The hearts of a man and woman in love will begin to synchronize after the couple has gazed into each other’s eyes for three minutes.
- Men who are having an affair are more likely to die of cardiac arrest during sex.
- The earliest known case of heart disease was identified in the remains of a 3,500-year-old Egyptian mummy.
- Most heart attacks happen on a Monday and in the hours of 8 and 9am.
- Strong emotions and stress can literally break a person’s heart. This condition is called “takotsubo’s cardiomyopathy” or “broken heart syndrome.” It primarily affects postmenopausal women.
- The number of heart attacks peaks on Christmas day, followed by December 26th and the New Year.
- Happiness and a strong sense of emotional vitality help lower your risk of heart disease.
- .Regular exercise is the single most important key to heart health. And it is FREE.
- You control your heart health through diet, exercise and managing stress.
Your heart is an amazing organ that affects every part of your body. That also means that it deserves the best care possible. Your diet, lifestyle, and your emotional well-being can affect your heart. Thus, emotional and physical health are also both important for maintaining a healthy heart.
About The Author
Charlotte has tried every buffet restaurant in the Metro and is on the quest to try the ones in the provinces soon. She's an active blogger and you can find her in her think tank in Marco Polo on weekdays. She used to think Oleia Topical Oil can help her loose weight since it's good for inflammation only to realize it's better for after work massages.
