The heart is roughly the size of your fist. Yet it works 24/7, taking no breaks and pumping blood throughout the whole body. It beats nearly 1 lakh times in a day. If you do quick math, that’s over 2.5 billion times in your entire lifetime. Seems almost impossible that an organ this tiny can work for so long, doesn’t it? But your heart does work that hard to keep you alive and moving. Often it plays a role in emotional decisions that may or may not work out well for us, but that’s part and parcel of being one of the most important organs of the body. Read on to find out more about the fascinating and truly amazing nature of this organ:
- Ever wondered when was your first heartbeat? The answer: when you were just 4 weeks old in your mother’s womb.
- In your entire lifetime, the heart will pump more than enough blood to fill up three super super tanker trucks.
- You know why Monday is universally disliked? Apart from being the start of the week, it’s also the day that most people suffer from a cardiac attack. Coincidence? Hmm…
- On that note, Christmas day is the most common day for people to experience cardiac attacks.
- The heart provides blood to all 75 trillion cells in your body. Except the cornea of the eye.
- Cardiac cells stop dividing, unlike the other cells of your body. That’s why cardiac cancer is extremely rare.
- Arteries, the hollow “pipes” that supply blood to the body from your heart are only about 4 millimetres in diameter. Greasy and fatty foods usually get stuck inside the walls of these narrow arteries and cause cardiac problems.
- The oldest record of a cardiac disease was found in a 3000-year-old mummies.
- The stethoscope was invented because a doctor felt embarrassed to place his ear to a woman’s chest to hear the heartbeat!
- This feisty organ is pretty self sustaining. As long as it has oxygen, it can continue to beat even if it’s removed from a person’s body. That’s because it has its own electrical impulse!
Your heart is truly a spectacular organ. We often read studies about how we should be more active for our cardiac health and it’s time we took them seriously! Our lifestyle is hectic but not active. We need to be getting out more for the sake of exercising and not just for work commute. It’s also important to remember that sitting for long periods is very dangerous for the cardiovascular health. Maybe not when you’re young, but as you grow older with age, the chances of cardiac problems increase linearly.
Take care of your heart, because it spends its whole life taking care of you.
REFERENCES:
1. 15 Weird, Scary & Amazing Facts About Your Heart. Available from: https://accelresearchsites.com/15-facts-about-your-heart/. Accessed on 20 August 2020.
2. Fun Facts About the Heart You Didn’t Know. Available from: https://www.healthline.com/health/fun-facts-about-the-heart. Accessed on 20 August 2020.
3. 26 Amazing Facts About Your Heart. Available from: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/facts-about-the-heart/. Accessed on 20 August 2020.
4. 5 Heart Facts That May Surprise You. Available from: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/5-heart-facts-that-may-surprise-you. Accessed on 20 August 2020.