Take care of your heart. It’s an incredible organ. Here are 24 amazing facts about your heart from Cleveland Clinic — celebrating 24 years as America’s Number One Heart Center!
24 Amazing Facts About Your Heart.
The heart pumps blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels!
24
Every cell in the body
gets blood from the heart, except for the corneas.
23
The heart has its own
electrical supply and will continue to beat when separated from the body.
22
A woman’s average heartbeat is faster than a man’s by almost 8 beats a minute.
21
Heart cancer is very rare, because heart cells stop dividing early in life.
20
You control your heart health through diet, exercise and managing stress.
19
Celebrities who’ve had open heart surgery in recent years include David Letterman, Bill Clinton, Barbara Walters, Jeff Green and Shaun White.
18
Your heart is a coordinated machine. The right side pumps blood into your lungs, while the left side pumps it back into your body.
17
Each minute your heart pumps 1.5 gallons of blood.
16
The beating sound is the clap of valve leaflets opening and closing.
15
Heart disease is your greatest health threat (and is a greater danger than breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men).
14
Regular exercise is the single most important key to heart health. And it is FREE.
13
It beats 100,000 times a day.
12
Your heart is about the size of your two hands clasped together...
11
Heart disease has been found in 3,000-year-old mummies.
10
Modesty prompted the invention of the stethoscope. Before it existed, doctors had to press their ears directly to each patient’s chest.
9
The blue whale has the
largest heart — weighing over 1,500 pounds.
8
The first “study” showing benefits of a vegetarian diet
appears in the Bible’s
Book of Daniel (600 BCE).
7
The first heart cell starts to beat as early as 4 weeks.
6
The number of heart attacks peaks on Christmas Day, followed by December 26th and New Year’s.
5
Happiness and a strong sense of emotional vitality help lower your risk of heart disease.
4
The first heart pacemakers
plugged into a wall socket.
3
A normal heart valve is
about the size of a half dollar.
2
The more education you have,
the lower your risk of heart disease.
1
This
Beat
© 2018 Cleveland Clinic