24 fun facts about the Heart
- The average heart is the size of a fist in an adult.
- Your heart will beat about 115,000 times each day.
- Your heart pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood every day.
- An electrical system controls the rhythm of your heart. It’s called the cardiac conduction system.
- The heart can continue beating even when it’s disconnected from the body.
- The first open-heart surgery occurred in 1893. It was performed by Daniel Hale Williams, who was one of the few black cardiologists in the United States at the time.
- The first implantable pacemaker was used in 1958. Arne Larsson, who received the pacemaker, lived longer than the surgeon who implanted it. Larsson died at 86 of a disease that was unrelated to his heart.
- The youngest person to receive heart surgery was only a minute old. She had a heart defect that many babies don’t survive. Her surgery was successful, but she’ll eventually need a heart transplant.
- The earliest known case of heart disease was identified in the remains of a 3,500-year-old Egyptian mummy.
- The fairy fly, which is a kind of wasp, has the smallest heart of any living creature.
- The American pygmy shrew is the smallest mammal, but it has the fastest heartbeat at 1,200 beats per minute.
- Whales have the largest heart of any mammal.
- The giraffe has a lopsided heart, with their left ventricle being thicker than the right. This is because the left side has to get blood up the giraffe’s long neck to reach their brain.
- Most heart attacks happen on a Monday.
- Christmas day is the most common day of the year for heart attacks to happen.
- The human heart weighs less than 1 pound. However, a man’s heart, on average, is 2 ounces heavier than a woman’s heart.
- A woman’s heart beats slightly faster than a man’s heart.
- The beating sound of your heart is caused by the valves of the heart opening and closing.
- It’s possible to have a broken heart. It’s called broken heart syndrome and can have similar symptoms as a heart attack. The difference is that a heart attack is from heart disease and broken heart syndrome is caused by a rush of stress hormones from an emotional or physical stress event.
- Death from a broken heart, or broken heart syndrome, is possible but extremely rare.
- The iconic heart shape as a symbol of love is traditionally thought to come from the silphium plant, which was used as an ancient form of birth control.
- If you were to stretch out your blood vessel system, it would extend over 60,000 miles.
- Heart cells stop dividing, which means heart cancer is extremely rare.
- Laughing is good for your heart. It reduces stress and gives a boost to your immune system.
