You always hear all the negative things about heart health and we tend to forget what an amazing healing miracle the heart truly is.

So, here are a few fun factoids to help you renew a little faith in your ticker.

More than a blood-pumping vascular organ, your heart’s the quintessential seat of your nucleus, your moral fiber, your tenacity and “will power.” Or, as many poets have said, “The seat of your soul.”

You know when someone show’s courage, boldness or moxie, we say they have heart.

When you get to the core of the matter, “the central theme” or down to the nitty-gritty, we say you’re shooting for the heart of the matter.

Nothing is more important or impressive than your heart health is.

So, if you don’t mind, let’s cut to the heart and take a closer look at the foundation of all life.

  • Your body carries about 6 quarts of blood, which completely circulates through you three times every 60 seconds, traveling about 12,000 miles every day. To put that in perspective, that would be like driving from New York to Florida and back again, 6 times in one day!
  • In order to move your blood 12,000 miles a day, the heart will beat about 100,000 times in the next 24 hours and about 35,000,000 times over the next year.
  • If you live an average lifespan, your ticker will tick nearly 2,500,000,000 times.

You thought you weren’t doing anything sitting here reading this! LOL

But, don’t worry; your heart rests a lot, too. In fact, you can measure your hearts resting heart beat by placing two fingers on the side of your neck or on your wrist. You’re actually feeling your blood stop between beats.

The normal resting pulse rate for an adult male is as low as 72 resting beats per minute.

Women rule in some matters of the heart. The resting heart beat of a woman averages slightly faster, but 50,000 more women die from heart disease than the 500,000 men every year in the US.

Now, the largest part of your circulatory system is the aorta artery, which is almost as large as a typical garden hose. On the other hand, the smallest parts are your capillaries, which as so tiny that a single human hair is ten times thicker.

Did you know your heart is actually located in the center of your chest; the top is just slightly tipped toward the left side. That’s why it seems to be more easily felt beating on the left side.

This makes your right lung slightly larger than your left lung because of space the larger part of the heart uses.

Got A Big Heart?

The average heart weighs in at about a pound. A child’s heart is about the size of his or her clinched fist, whereas an adults is about the size of two adult fists.

Problem is having a big heart, as we say, isn’t always a good thing. I’m not talking about a sign of affection. An enlarged heart, called a dilated cardiomyopathy, is a symptom of heart disease.

An enlarged heart is a weakened heart that’s inflamed and can lead to total failure of the heart unless it’s reversed as soon as possible.

In part II of the Amazing Heart, I reveal an amazingly simple way to reverse heart disease.

P.S. Laughter is the best medicine for your heart health. It actually relaxes the blood vessel walls, increasing circulation for about 45 minutes after you got the punch line.

 

Comments

comments