15 facts about the human heart

The human heart is an organ that pumps blood throughout the body via the circulatory system, supplying oxygen and nutrients to the tissues and removing carbon dioxide and other wastes.

1. 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.
2. An average adult heart beats 72 times a minute, 100000 times a day, 3600000 times a year, and 2.5 billion times during a lifetime.
3. The energy created by a heart each day has the capacity to drive a truck 20 miles. In a lifetime, that is equivalent to driving to the moon and back.
4. Since the 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.
5. The heart pumps nearly 1.5 million barrels of blood during a lifetime which is enough to fill 200 train tank cars.
6. The “thump-thump” sound of a heartbeat is made by the four valves of the heart closing.
7. The heart begins beating at four weeks after conception and does not stop until death.
8. Early Egyptians believed that the heart and other major organs had wills of their own and would move around inside the body.
   
9. Plato theorized that reasoning originated with the brain, but that passions originated in the “fiery” heart.
10. Prolonged lack of sleep can cause irregular jumping heartbeats called premature ventricular contractions (PVCs).
11. A woman’s heart typically beats faster than a man’s. The heart of an average man beats approximately 70 times a minute, whereas the average woman has a heart rate of 78 beats per minute.
12. Grab a tennis ball and squeeze it tightly: that’s how hard the beating heart works to pump blood.
13. The volume of blood pumped by the heart can vary over a wide range, from five to 30 liters per minute.
14. The heart pumps blood to almost all of the body’s 75 trillion cells. Only the corneas receive no blood supply.
15. 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.

Source & photo credits: facts.randomhistory.com