Facts About the Heart
Fun facts about the heart can both entertain and surprise you. Likewise, while heart trivia may be fun, learning these facts can be more than mere entertainment. These facts will also educate you about how the heart works and how you can keep yours strong and healthy.
Basic Facts about the Heart
How well do you know your heart? These facts may surprise you:
- The heart weighs less than one pound. The average weight for women is eight ounces and for men, 10 ounces.
- Your heartbeats with enough strength to shoot blood a distance of 30 feet.
- Your left lung is smaller than your right one to make room in your chest cavity for your heart.
- On average, a million barrels worth of blood is pumped through the heart in a lifetime.
- Every year, your heart beats approximately 35 million times. That is 100,000 beats per day and 70 beats per minute. Over the course of a lifetime, that adds up to an average of 2.5 billion heartbeats.
- Your heart is made up almost entirely of muscle. It is strong enough to lift approximately 3,000 pounds – roughly the weight of a compact car.
- The blood vessels fed by your heart are more than 60,000 miles long. According to The Cleveland Clinic, they could wrap around the world twice.
- Clench your fists and put them side by side. This is roughly the size of your heart. A child’s heart is approximately the size of on clenched fist on an adult hand.
- Women’s hearts beat faster than male hearts.
- The human heart begins to beat as early as four weeks after conception. Scientists believe that by eight weeks, when the embryo is only an inch long, the heart is fully developed.
Fun Facts about the Heart – Heart Health
These fun facts about the heart can do more than just wow you. They can also help you keep your heart healthy and help you live longer.
- Heart disease is a major risk. In the US, it kills two times more people than all kinds of cancer.
- Even long time smokers can benefit from stubbing out their cigarettes. Within three years of quitting, the risk of heart attack for former smokers is the same as it is for lifetime non-smokers.
- To avoid heart disease, get moving. The risk of heart disease doubles in inactive people versus people who get regular exercise. Aerobic activity, like running, swimming and biking, are the best choices for cutting your risk of heart disease.
- Taking care of your teeth can have a dramatic impact on heart health. If you develop gum disease, your chance having a heart attack or a stroke increases by 50%.
- Morning is peak time for heart attacks. The majority of heart attacks happen during the hours of 8 and 9 in the morning. Most heart attacks happen on Mondays.
- For men, there is a strange link between the ring finger and the heart. According to scientific studies, the longer a man’s ring finger is, the lower his chance of having a heart attack.
- Laughing can be a great workout for your heart. Whenever you laugh, the blood flow in your heart is increased for up to 45 minutes, which in turn improves your heart health.
- You really can have a “broken heart.” When you experience an emotionally difficult event, like a death of a loved one or the end of a romantic relationship, your body releases stress hormones. These hormones can sometimes cause symptoms similar to those of a heart attack. In some cases, there hormones can cause an actual heart attack.
- Women hearts beat faster than men.
- The human heart weighs less than a pound.
- The human heart can create enough pressure that it could squirt blood at a distance of thirty feet.
- The first open heart surgery was performed by Dr. Daniel Hall Williams in 1893.
- Scientists have discovered that the longer the ring finger is in boys the less chance they have of having a heart attack.
- The right lung of a human is larger than the left one. This is because of the space and placement of the heart.
- The human heart beat roughly 35 million times a year.
- Olive oil can help in lowering cholesterol levels and decreasing the risk of heart complications.
- In a lifetime, the heart pumps about one million barrels of blood.
- In 1967, the first successful heart transplant was performed in Cape Town, South Africa.
- People that suffer from gum disease are twice as likely to have a stroke or heart attack.
- Most heart attacks occur between the hours of 8 and 9 AM.
- The human heart beast roughly 35 million times a year.
- At one time it was thought that the heart controlled a person's emotions.
- Every day 2,700 people die of heart disease.
- During a typical human life span, the human heart will beat approximately 2.5 billion times.
- In one day your heart beats 100,000 times.
- For humans the normal pulse is 70 heartbeats per minute.