50 Amazing and Interesting Facts about Heart | Amazing Facts 4U
- The average adult heart beats 72 times a minute; 100,000 times a day; 3.6 million times a year; and an amazing 2.5 billion times during a lifetime.
- The heart has four chambers, two atria and two ventricles on either side. “Atrium” is Latin for “entrance hall,” and “ventricle” is Latin for “little belly.”
- Your left lung is actually smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart. The study of the human heart and its various disorders is known as cardiology.
- The amazing fact is that the human heart is not heart-shaped. A cow’s heart is more heart-shaped than a human one. Generally speaking, a healthy heart is about the size of a person’s fist.
- Aristotle believed that the heart was the body’s source of heat.
- Though weighing only about 300 gm on average, a healthy heart pumps about 7500 liters of blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels each day which would stretch around the world more than twice!
- The heart is one big muscular pump made up of involuntary striated muscle cells. Grab a tennis ball and squeeze it tightly. That’s how hard the beating heart works to pump blood.
- During an average lifetime, the heart will pump nearly 1.5 million barrels of blood. A kitchen faucet would have 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.
- In an average lifetime, a human heart pumps enough blood to fill 100 swimming pools.
- Blood pressure is a measure of the pressure exerted by blood on the walls of the heart chambers. Systolic is a measure of the pressure when the heart is pumping and diastolic is a measure when the heart is relaxed.
- Amazingly the pressure created in the heart during a heartbeat is enough to squirt blood a distance of 30 feet.
- The heart circulation cycle starts with blood flowing into the right atrium and through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle from where it is pumped to the lungs to dispose of CO2 and pick up O2. This oxygenated blood is pumped into the left atrium and then to the left ventricle, through the bicuspid valve. Finally, it is pumped out of the left ventricle to the body via the aorta and finally to the capillaries. Deoxygenated blood is collected through veins back to the right atrium.
- The heart pumps blood to almost all of the body’s 75 trillion cells. Only our corneas receive no blood supply.
- 5 % of blood supplies the heart, 15-20% goes to the brain and central nervous system, and 22% blood goes to the kidneys.
- The volume of blood pumped by the heart can vary over a wide range, from five to 30 liters per minute depending on person and exertion.
- Amazingly every day, the heart creates enough energy to drive a truck 20 miles. In a lifetime, that is equivalent to driving to the moon and back.
- Because the heart has its own electrical impulse, it can continue to beat even when separated from the body, as long as it is provided enough oxygen supply.
- The fetal heart rate is approximately twice as fast as an adult’s, at about 150 beats per minute.
- The heartbeat (lub-dub sound) is the produced by the closing of the atrioventricular valves.
- The heart does the most physical work of any muscle during a lifetime. The power output of the heart ranges from 1-5 watts throughout life. The heart in fact starts beating at four weeks after conception and continue until death. In contrast quadriceps muscle can produce 100 watts for a few minutes.
- A newborn baby has about one cup of blood in circulation. An adult human has about 5 liters.
- In fact, the heart pumps oxygenated blood through the aorta at about 1 mile (1.6 km) per hour. By the time blood reaches the capillaries, it is moving at around 3.5 feet (110 cm) per hour.
- Prolonged lack of sleep and other causes can cause irregular jumping heartbeats called premature ventricular contractions which could be dangerous.
- Cocaine affects the heart’s electrical activity and causes spasm of the arteries, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke, even in healthy people.
- In 1929, German surgeon Werner Forssmann (1904-1979) examined the inside of his own heart by threading a catheter into his arm vein and pushing it 20 inches into his heart, inventing cardiac catheterization. He had been denied permission to do so by the department head. He then walked down to the X-ray department and took a picture to prove it.
- On December 3, 1967, Dr. Christiaan Barnard (1922-2001) of South Africa transplanted a human heart into the body of Louis Washansky in Cape Town making it the first successful heart transplant. The recipient survived 18 days.
- A woman’s heart typically beats faster than a man’s. The heartbeat of an average man is about 70 while that of the average woman is about 78 beats per minute.
- Blood is actually a liquid tissue. It takes only 6 seconds for the blood to go from the heart to the lungs and back, only 8 seconds for it to go the brain and back, and only 16 seconds for it to reach the toes and travel all the way back to the heart.
- French physician Rene Laennec (1781-1826) invented the stethoscope to examine heart.
- William Harvey (1578-1657) discovered the circulatory system in 1616 realizing that there was a finite amount of blood in the body which circulated in one direction.
- In 1903, physiologist Willem Einthoven (1860-1927) invented the electrocardiograph (ECG) which measures micro electric current in the heart.
- Heart attack or myocardial infarct is due to partial/complete blockage of right & left coronary arteries and their branches which supply blood to the heart affecting the heart function.
- One-third of first heart attacks are fatal, and another third result in permanent damage to the heart.Most heart attacks occur between the hours of 8 and 9 AM with Monday being the most “popular” day.
- Smoking makes the risk of a heart attack 200% to 400% greater than that of nonsmokers.
- The risk of heart disease for inactive people is double that of people who get regular exercise. The American Heart Association recommends at least 30 min of moderate exercise on most days of the week. Other risk factors for heart attack are high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, obesity and diabetes.
- Instead of chest pains, women are likely to have nausea, indigestion, and shoulder aches as symptoms of heart attack. Symptoms may also be masked if you have diabetes.
- Frank Hayes was a jockey who, in 1923, suffered a fatal heart attack in the midst of a race at Belmont Park in New York. His horse finished and won the race with his lifeless body making him the first, and thus far, only, jockey to win a race after death.
- Having an orgasm at least 3 times a week cuts in half the likelihood of coronary heart disease.
- A study has found that eating dark chocolate every day reduces the risk of heart disease by one-third.
- A hearty laugh can send up to 20% more blood pumping throughout your body.
- Cardiovascular disease is the leading global cause of death, accounting for about 17.3 million deaths per year in the world. Number is growing year by year. Cardiovascular diseases claim more lives than all forms of cancer combined.
- Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the world and the leading cause of death in the United States, killing over 375,000 Americans a year. Heart disease accounts for 1 in 7 deaths in the U.S. Someone in the U.S. dies from heart disease about once every 90 seconds.
- The inventor of the heart stent approached many companies for funding and was rejected. It was funded by the owner of Fuddrucker’s restaurant, whom he met by chance on a golf course.
- Scientists have been able to develop artificial heart with two turbines which can now replace human heart. It will have a constant flow of blood rather than a pulse.
- Amazingly when a pregnant woman suffers organ damage such as a heart attack, the fetus sends stem cells to the damaged organ to help repair it.
- In New York, a golfer was killed by his own club he threw in frustration. It bounced back and pierced his heart.
- Cocaine increases the chance of having a heart attack within the hour by 2,400%
- Amazing fact is that as late as 1985 doctors believed babies did not feel pain, and conducted open heart surgeries on infants with no anesthesia.
- A man received the heart of a suicide victim, married his widow, and 12 years later killed himself in the same way the donor did.
- Amazingly NBA player Pete Maravich said in an interview when he was 26 that he didn’t want to play in the NBA for 10 years, then die of a heart attack at 40. He proceeded to have a 10 year NBA career, and then die of a heart attack at 40.
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