Did you know? – 30 Facts about the Heart

Throughout National Heart Month we have been tweeting our heart facts here and there; here is our compiled list that we have been using over the past month. Enjoy!

1. Every day the heart creates enough energy to drive a truck 20 miles. In a lifetime, that is the equivalent of driving to the moon and back.

2. When the body is resting, it only takes 6 seconds for blood to travel from heart to the lungs and back. Only 8 seconds for it to go to the brain and back and only 16 seconds for it to reach the toes and travel all the way back to the heart.

3. 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.

4. The heart begins beating 4 weeks after conception.

5. The human heart is not ‘heart-shaped’, a cow’s heart is closer to the ‘heart-shape’ we use to indicate the heart.

6. The largest artery in the body, the aorta, is almost the diameter of a garden hose. Capillaries, on the other hand, are so small that it takes ten of them to equal the thickness of a strand of human hair.

7. A normal heart valve is about the same size of a 50cent piece.

8. The first heart pacemakers plugged into a wall socket.

9. Happiness and a strong sense of emotional vitality helps lower your risk of heart disease.

10. The number of heart attacks peaks on Christmas Day, followed by December 26th and New Year’s.

11. The first heart cell starts to beat as early as 4 weeks.

12. The Blue Whale has the largest heart; weighing in at a massive 1,500 pounds.

13. Before a stethoscope was invented, doctors had to press their ears directly to each patient’s chest to check a heart beat.

14. Heart disease has been found in 3000 year old Mummies.

15. Your heart is about the size of your two hands clasped together

16. Heart disease is your greatest threat; greater danger than breast cancer for women and prostate cancer for men.

17. The beating sound is the clap of valve leaflets opening and closing.

18. Heart cancer is very rare, because heart cells stop dividing early in life.

19. Every day, your heart creates enough energy to drive a truck for 20 miles (32KM)

20. Your heart can keep beating even if it is separated from the body because it has its own electrical impulse

21. 75 trillion cells receive blood from the heart; only the corneas don’t.

22. Your heart will pump nearly 1.5 million barrels of blood during your lifetime, enough to fill 200 train tank cars

23. Owning a cat can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes by than a third, researchers found.

24. Your heartbeat changes and mimics the music you listen to.

25. Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart.

26. Eating dark chocolate every day reduces the risk of heart disease by one third.

27. The first heart transplant occurred on Dec 3rd 1967, Dr. Christiaan Barnard of South Africa. Although the patient, Louis Washansky, only lived for 18 days after, it is considered the first successful transplant.

28. Grab a tennis ball and squeeze it tightly; that’s how hard the beating heart works to pump.

29. Worldwide, 17.3 million people die each year from heart disease or stroke, which accounts for 31 per cent of all deaths.

30. Aristotle believed that the heart was the source of intelligence and the main function of the brain was to cool our blood.

As February comes to a close for another year, so does National Heart Month, all our blog posts from the past month will remain right here on the defibshop blog page for your reading pleasure.

However, if you would like to read some more information regarding your heart, defibrillators, cardiac arrest and everything in between, why not check out our FAQ page which is packed full of useful information regarding your bodies most valuable organ.Learn more about defibrillators