Heart Facts
You know how to win hearts, steal hearts and
break hearts. Before you go doing it, know the
heart facts:
Heart Facts you would like to know
1. Your system of blood vessels -- arteries,
veins and capillaries -- is over 60,000 miles
long. That's long enough to go around the
world more than twice!
2. When attempting to locate their heart,
most people place their hand on their left
chest. Actually, your heart is located in the
center of your chest between your lungs.
The bottom of the heart is tipped to the
left, so you feel more of your heart on your
left side of your chest.
3. Heart has its own electrical impulse, it can
continue to beat even when separated
from the body, as long as it has an
adequate supply of oxygen.
4. The “thump-thump”, “lubb-dubb” of a
heartbeat is the sound made by the four
valves of the heart closing.
5. The heart begins beating at four weeks
after conception and does not stop until
death
6. The heart does the most physical work of
any muscle during a lifetime. The power
output of the heart ranges from 1-5 watts.
While the quadriceps can produce 100
watts for a few minutes, an output of one
watt for 80 years is equal to 2.5 gigajoules
7. The heart beats about 100,000 times each
day. 35 million times in a year and in a 70-
year lifetime, the average human heart
beats more than 2.5 billion times
8. As a kid your heart rate (number of times
the heart beats in a minute) ranges
between 90-120. As you become an adult
heart beat ranges between 60-72 beats a
minute. The heart rate should be
calculated at resting stage (when you are
relaxed and taking rest).
9. A small mass of specialized muscle on
the back wall of the right atrium called
the sino-atrial(SA) node, also known as
the pacemaker sends out electrical
impulses to generate the heartbeat at
regular intervals. This is the one that
regulates your heart beat.
10. 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
11. An adult woman's heart weighs about 8
ounces, a man's about 10 ounces
12. A child's heart is about the size of a
clenched fist; an adult's heart is about the
size of two fists.
13. Blood is about 78 percent water.
14. Aorta is the largest artery in the body
which helps carries the blood from the
heart to various organs in the body.
15. The heart pumps oxygenated blood through
the aorta (the largest artery) at about 1
mile (1.6 km) per hour. By the time blood
reaches the capillaries, it is moving at
around 43 inches (109 cm) per hour
16. Blood flows through the heart in this
order: right atrium, right ventricle,
pulmonary circuit, left atrium, left
ventricle and into aorta that delivers
blood to various organs in the body
17. Blood takes about 20 seconds to circulate
throughout the entire vascular system.
18. Drugs such as cocaine, marijuana can
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.
19. Some heavy snorers may have a condition
called obtrusive sleep apnea (OSA), which
can negatively affect the heart
20. Your body has on an average 5.6 litres of
blood. 5.6 litres of blood circulates through
the body 3 times every minute. In one day
blood travels around 12,000 miles every
day.
21. The heart pumps blood to almost all of the
body’s 75 trillion cells. Only the corneas
receive no blood supply.
22. 5% percent of blood supplies the heart,
15-20% goes to the brain and central
nervous system, and 22% goes to the
kidneys.
23. When one goes on for a vigorous exercise
programme you should learn about your
Target heart rate.
24. Prolonged lack of sleep can cause irregular
jumping heartbeats called premature
ventricular contractions (PVCs).
25. “Atrium” is Latin for “entrance hall,” and
“ventricle” is Latin for “little belly.”
26. The right atrium holds about 3.5
tablespoons of blood. The right ventricle
holds slightly more than a quarter cup of
blood. The left atrium holds the same
amount of blood as the right, but its walls
are three times thicker
27. Grab a tennis ball and squeeze it tightly:
that’s how hard the beating heart works to
pump blood.
28. The heart works harder than any other
muscle in the body, it needs a much richer
blood supply. The coronary arteries, which
leave the aorta about a 1/2 inch above the
aortic valve run along the outside of the
heart. After giving off the oxygen to its
capillaries, the blood then drains directly
into the right atrium.
29. Blood is actually a tissue. When the body is
at rest, it takes only six seconds for the
blood to go from the heart to the lungs and
back, only eight 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.
30. Coronary artery disease is due to
atherosclerosis, or hardening of the
arteries, which is a slow progressive build-
up of cholesterol plaque in the arteries of
the heart. Most patients find out that they
have heart disease when it is quite
advanced. This is due to lack of
understanding about how heart disease
develops.
31. Heart disease actually kills two times
more women than all cancers combined.
32. Do not rely only on cholesterol level. 77% of
people who have the first heart attack
attack are found to have normal
cholesterol.
33. If your ECG, ECO and Treadmill tests are
normal still you can have early disease for
changes occur in these tests after blocks
develop to more than 60%. That means you
are missing out early lesions and indirectly
allowing the disease to grow.
34. Conventional coronary angiogram is unable
to detect early heart disease where the
relative cross sectional plaque area is less
than 45%. In other words a "normal
coronary angiogram" may not necessarily
mean normal coronary arteries.
35. When you measure your BP you have 2
values eg 120/80mm Hg. The number on
the top ie 120 mm Hg is the systolic
pressure which is the highest arterial
pressure recorded during a ventricular
cycle. This is commonly recorded during the
contraction stage of the heart muscle. The
bottom number 80mm Hg is the diastolic
pressure. This is the lowest arterial
pressure during a ventricular cycle. This is
usually recorded while the heart is refilling
with blood.
36. French physician Rene Laennec (1781-1826)
invented the stethoscope when he felt it
was inappropriate to place his ear on his
large-buxomed female patients' chests.
37. Physician Erasistratus of Chios (304-250
B.C.) was the first to discover that the
heart functioned as a natural pump.
38. The structure of the heart was first
described in 1706, by Raymond de
Viessens, a French anatomy professor.
39. The electrocardiograph (ECG) was invented
in 1902 by Dutch physiologist Willem
Einthoven. This test is still used to evaluate
the heart's rate and rhythm.
40. The first heart specialists emerged after
World War I.


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