The heart is a unique organ that has components of both muscle and nervous tissue. As part of the cardiovascular system, its job is to pump blood to the cells and tissues of the body. Did you know that your heart can continue to beat even if it is not in your body? It is a weird thing right? You can win it, you can break it! You can feel it and you can hear it beating! It is one such organ in our body without which we cannot survive.
Put in simple words, the heart is a vital organ that keeps us alive. But the question is, ‘how much do you really know about your heart?’ Let us today learn 40 inte resting facts about human heart and be amazed by its amazing abilities.
The human heart is perhaps one of the biggest engineering miracles in the world. It works tirelessly, for the many years of our lives, to pump vitality through our body. Since ancient times, we have expressed our admiration for this amazing organ, keeping us alive and well. Our heart is our biggest defender as well as the chink in our armor, being the most prevalent cause of death in many countries, specifically developed countries.
So here are some mind-blowing facts about our hearts that we need to know so we can begin to take proper care of it...
* The blue whale has the largest heart weighing over 1,500 pounds.
* The more education you have, the lower your risk of heart disease.
* Did you know that when a choir sings their heart rates synchronize?
* Only the corneas receive no blood supply.
* As we said earlier, happiness really does lead to heart health. And so does laughter. Laughing can send 20% more blood flowing through your body and it relaxes your vessel walls.
* Most heart attacks happen on a Monday.
* Christmas day is the most common day of the year for heart attacks to happen.
* The giraffe has a lopsided heart, with their left ventricle being thicker than the right. This is because the left side has to get blood up the giraffe’s long neck to reach their brain.
* YOUR HEART BEATS AROUND 100,000 TIMES IN A YEAR
In young adults, the heart beats between 70 (at rest) and 200 (heavy exercise) times per minute. In one year, the heart beats around 100,000 times. In 70 years, your heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times.
* YOUR HEART PUMPS ABOUT 1.3 GALLONS OF BLOOD IN ONE MINUTE
When at rest, the heart can pump approximately 1.3 gallons (5 quarts) of blood per minute. Blood circulates through the entire system of blood vessels in only 20 seconds. In a day, the heart pumps around 2,000 gallons of blood through thousands of miles of blood vessels.
* The earliest known case of heart disease was identified in the remains of a 3,500-year-old Egyptian mummy.
* The fairy fly, which is a kind of wasp, has the smallest heart of any living creature.
* The American pygmy shrew is the smallest mammal, but it has the fastest heartbeat at 1,200 beats per minute.
* YOUR HEART STARTS BEATING BETWEEN 3 AND 4 WEEKS AFTER CONCEPTION
The human heart starts to beat a few weeks after fertilization takes place. At 4 weeks, the heart beats between 105 and 120 times per minute.
* COUPLES' HEARTS BEAT AS ONE
A University of California at Davis study has shown that couples breath at the same rate and have synchronized heart beats. In the study, couples were connected to heart rate and respiration monitors as they went through several exercises without touching or speaking to each other. The couples' heart and breathing rates tended to be synchronized, indicating that romantically involved couples are linked on a physiological level.
* YOUR HEART CAN STILL BEAT APART FROM YOUR BODY
Unlike other muscles, heart contractions are not regulated by the brain. Electrical impulses generated by heart nodes cause your heart to beat. As long as it has enough energy and oxygen, your heart will continue to beat even outside of your body.
* The human heart may continue to beat for up to a minute after removal from the body. However, the heart of an individual addicted to a drug, such as cocaine, can beat for a much longer period of time outside of the body.
* Cocaine causes the heart to work harder as it reduces blood flow to the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle. This drug increases heart rate, heart size, and can cause heart muscle cells to beat erratically.
* As demonstrated in a video by American Medical Center MEDspiration, the heart of a 15 year cocaine addict beat for 25 minutes outside of his body.
* HEART SOUNDS ARE MADE BY HEART VALVES
The heart beats as a result of cardiac conduction, which is the generation of electrical impulses that cause the heart to contract. As the atria and ventricles contract, the closing of the heart valves produces the "lub-dupp" sounds.
* A heart murmur is an abnormal sound caused by turbulent blood flow in the heart. The most common type of heart murmur is caused by problems with the mitral valve located between the left atrium and left ventricle. The abnormal sound is produced by the back flow of blood into the left atrium. Normal functioning valves prevent blood from flowing backward.
* BLOOD TYPE IS LINKED TO HEART DISEASE
Researchers have found that your blood type could put you at a higher risk of developing heart disease. According to a study published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, those with blood type AB have the highest risk for developing heart disease. Those with blood type B have the next highest risk, followed by type A. Those with blood type O have the lowest risk. The reasons for the link between blood type and heart disease are not fully understood; however, type AB blood has been linked to inflammation and type A to increased levels of a certain type of cholesterol.
* ABOUT 20% OF CARDIAC OUTPUT GOES TO THE KIDNEYS AND 15% TO THE BRAIN
About 20% of blood flow goes to the kidneys. The kidneys filter toxins from the blood which are excreted in urine. They filter about 200 quarts of blood per day. Consistent blood flow to the brain is necessary for survival. If blood flow is interrupted, brain cells can die within a matter of minutes. The heart itself receives about 5% of cardiac output through the coronary arteries.
* SLOW BLOOD FLOW CAN CAUSE HEART DISEASE
Researchers from the University of Washington have uncovered more clues as to how heart arteries may become blocked over time. By studying blood vessel walls, it was discovered that blood cells move closer together when they are in areas where blood flow is swift. This clinging together of cells reduces the loss of fluid from blood vessels. The researchers noted that in areas where blood flow is slow, there tends to be more leakage from arteries. This leads to artery blocking cholesterol buildup in those areas.
* Pollution hurts more than your lungs. We've always known pollution is bad for your lungs. Now scientists are finding that it's also toxic for your heart, even at low levels. When pollutants are inhaled, they trigger an increase in "reactive oxygen species," which are super-oxiding molecules that damage cells, cause inflammation in the lungs, and spark a cascade of harmful effects in the heart and cardiovascular system. Hearts exposed to pollution are also at higher risk for arrhythmias.
* Hearts can break, literally. Losing a loved one can bring overwhelming feelings of grief, depression, and anger. For some people, the shock and stress of bereavement may even bring on a heart attack. A new study of nearly 2,000 heart-attack survivors found that attacks were far more likely to happen soon after the death of a family member or close friend than at other times. The risk of having a heart attack appears to decline as grief subsides.
* Your heart is your center. Notice when people say the Pledge of Allegiance, that they place their hands slightly to the left on the chest? That's because most people think their hearts are on the left sides. The truth is, your heart is dead center in the middle of your chest, though it feels like it's tilted to the left, because the largest part of your heart is on the left. Your left lung is smaller than your right to make room for your heart. People with dextrocardia, a defect, have their hearts on the right side.
* Drinking coffee may reduce risks. Coffee drinkers are less likely to be hospitalized or worried about heart rhythm disturbances, even though the caffeine in coffee can make the heart beat faster. The researchers found that those who reportedly drink four or more cups of coffee each day had an 18% lower risk of hospitalization for heart rhythm disturbances. Those who reportedly drink one to three cups each day had a 7% reduction in risk.
* It's fist-sized. The average heart weighs between 7 and 15 ounces (about what an apple weighs) and is a little larger than the size of your fist.
* Your heart never stops. It begins beating about 22 days after conception, and ends, well, when you do. By the end of a long life, a human heart can beat up to 3.5 billion times.
* Women's hearts beat faster. The male heart beats about 70 beats per minute. But before conception, male and female hearts beat at about the same rate.
* The energy created by the pumping action of the heart in a human body in one day is enough to drive a truck for a distance of 20 miles! So, if all the energy produced by the heart throughout the lifetime of a person can be collected, it will be enough to drive all the way to the moon and come back to earth!
* The heart clocks 150 beats a minute in the fetal stage. This is over twice the beating rate in adults. By the time the fetus reaches 12 weeks of age, the heart starts pumping 60 pints of blood in one day!
* Heart is the only muscle in human body which does the maximum amount of physical work, generating around 1-5 watts of power. Even with 1 watt power, the heart can produce 2.5 gigajoules of energy in 80 years (assuming that a person survives 80 years).
* In an average lifetime, anyone’s heart will be pumping blood enough to fill a total of two hundred train tank cars, which is equivalent to 1.5 million barrels of blood.
* Premature Ventricular Contraction is heart condition where the heartbeats are jumpy and irregular. This is usually caused when a person lacks sleep for a prolonged period of time. This condition may be caused by other factors as well.
* Women’s breasts were actually responsible for the invention of stethoscope. It was actually invented by Rene Laennec, a French Physician who actually found placing ears on the chest of a large-bosomed female patient just to hear and count the heartbeats.
* Blood travels to different parts of the body from heart and comes back to the heart. From heart to lungs and back to heart, the blood takes only 6 seconds for this entire journey. For heart to brain and back to heart, it takes only 8 seconds and for heart to toes and back to heart, it takes only 16 seconds.
* Cardiac catheterization, which is very widespread and common was actually invented back in 1929 by Werner Forssmann, a German surgeon. He actually threaded a catheter to the vein of his arm and pushed it all the way up by 20 inches right into his heart and examined the interior of his own heart.
* Our body consists of arteries and veins. Arteries are responsible for carrying oxygenated blood from heart to the rest of the body and veins are responsible for carrying deoxygenated blood from the body to the heart.
* The first ever successful heart transplant was in year 1967 on December 3. It was carried out by Dr. Christiaan Barnard of South Africa. The patient was Louis Washansky. Though Louis only survived for 18 days after the transplant, the operation is considered to be successful because the patient at least survived for little over two weeks instead of dying on spot.
* Aristotle’s philosophy was the origin for the term ‘heartfelt’. According to Aristotle, emotions and thoughts came from sensory inputs collected by the heart from peripheral organs through blood vessels.
* Lub-dub lub-dub is the sound we hear when we place our ears on someone’s chest right above the heart. That is actually the sound of the heartbeat which is caused by the closing atrioventricular valves in the heart.
* Blood pressure at any given point in time is the pressure that the blood puts on the walls of the chambers of the heart. When the heart is relaxed, the pressure exerted by the blood is the diastolic pressure and when the heart is beating/pumping, the pressure exerted by the blood is the systolic pressure.
* Blood can be squirted to a distance of 30 feet by the pressure that is created by a heartbeat.
* YOUR HEART WEIGHS LESS THAN A CAN OF SODA
* Your workouts not only boost your heart health, they can also serve/ as your body’s “check engine” light. If you spend a few sessions in a row struggling to run the same pace or complete the same circuit you usually do for no apparent reason, talk to your doctor. This could signal that your heart’s not quite pumping enough blood, which is an early sign of heart trouble.
* Heart cancer develops so rarely. Only about one case per year. That’s because heart cells stop dividing early, so cancer-causing mutations are less likely to occur. Still, that’s not to say that cancer elsewhere in your body can’t harm your heart. Other cancers can metastasize, or spread, to your heart. Plus, chemotherapy and other treatments for malignancies can damage its tissue.
* If you go to your doctor because you can’t get or maintain an erection, you’ll probably get a heart test. Erectile dysfunction serves as an early red-flag for heart problem That’s because the tiny blood vessels in the penis can sustain damage before larger veins and arteries.
* Men who have sex twice a week or more appear less likely to develop heart disease than those that get busy once a month or less, according to a study in the American Journal of Cardiology. Scientists think there may be two possible reasons behind the diminished risk: a good romp can count as a mini-workout, or frequent sex with the same partner is the sign of a solid, stress-relieving partnership—both of which are proven to improve health.
* Laughter balances your stress hormones, reduces inflammation in your arteries, and increases “good” cholesterol. These effects last at least 24 hours, according to the American Heart Association.
* YOU CAN GAUGE YOUR HEART’S HEALTH WITH A TAPE MEASURE
For a quick check of your heart risk, wrap a tape measure around your waist. If it measures half your height or more—say, 35 inches or greater for a 5’10” guy—your middle makes you prone to problems
* Fat stored in your gut—especially deep or visceral fat, the stuff surrounding your organs—secretes hormones and other compounds that boost your chances of heart disease.
* Alcohol—especially red wine—contains antioxidants and a compound called resveratrol. So drinking it in moderation, up to two drinks per day and no more than 14 per week for guys, may protect your heart against artery damage. While two glasses of wine helps your heart, binge drinking regularly places your heart in peril.
College students who regularly downed more than four drinks in two hours sustained changes in their blood vessel cells that left them prone to hardened arteries according to a study and that can eventually lead to heart attack.
* THE LENGTH OF YOUR HEART’S BLOOD VESSELS IS STAGGERING
If you stretched out all your blood vessels, they’d extend more than 60,000 miles long and wrap around the world more than twice.
* SADNESS AS A KID CAN HURT YOUR HEART YEARS LATER
Childhood trauma can lead to heart problems down the line. For instance, children who have family members incarcerated have double the risk of heart attack later in adulthood. That may be because adversity in childhood boosts lifelong levels of the stress hormone cortisol, linked to heart troubles.
* SNEEZING WON’T STOP YOUR HEART
Your heart doesn’t stop when you sneeze, despite popular belief. (It’s rumored to be one of the reasons people say “God bless you” when you sneeze). The myth likely arose because changing pressure in your chest when you sneeze alters blood flow, creating the sensation of a skipped heartbeat.
* YOUR HEART SPORTS SCARS
Unlike other organs and tissues in your body—say, like a cut on your skin or even a broken bone—the heart can’t heal itself from damage. That’s why fast treatment for a heart attack is key. Each minute that passes can leave more of your heart permanently scarred.
* SCIENTISTS ARE LOOKING FOR WAYS TO HEAL YOUR HEART
Scientists have begun to figure out ways to repair and rebuild heart tissue that was damaged by a heart attack or heart defect. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have 3D-printed coronary arteries and embryonic hearts using soft proteins like collagens and fibrins. Other research teams have seen success with adult stem cells. Ideally, these regrown pieces of the heart would replace the damaged ones inside your body.
* BIGGER ISN’T ALWAYS BETTER
A larger heart muscle doesn’t equal better pumping power—in fact, it’s often the sign of a problem. Some people are born with abnormally large heart muscles. This condition, called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, stands as the number-one reason athletes die suddenly of heart problems. Uncontrolled blood pressure or similar conditions can also enlarge your heart over time, increasing your risk of heart failure, abnormal heart rhythms, and other life-threatening issues.
* EXTRA POUNDS HURT YOUR HEART AT ANY AGE
Signs of heart disease—including thickened muscle tissue—have been found in obese kids as young as age 8 by researchers at Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pennsylvania. Extra weight can weigh down their hearts early, boosting their odds of a cardiac event later in life—and an earlier death.
* HEART PROBLEMS CAN LEAD TO BETTER HEART HEALTH
Heart disease—or even heart surgery—shouldn’t bring your life to a halt.
So hope you'll spend time to take care of your heart via exercises and healthy food. *Smiles*
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