In honor of American Heart Month, check out these 19 surprising facts about the heart!
- Eating dark chocolate every day reduces the risk of heart disease by one-third
- Your heart beats around 100,000 times a day
- A woman’s average heartbeat is faster than a man’s by almost 8 beats a minute
- The fetal heart is approximately twice as fast as an adult’s, at about 150 beats per minute, by the time a fetus is 12 weeks old, it’s heart pumps an amazing 60 pints of blood a day
- The heart can continue to beat even when separated from the body – as long as it has an adequate supply of oxygen
- Each minute your heart pumps 1.5 gallons of blood around the body
- The right side of the heart pumps blood into your lungs, the left side pumps it back into your body
- Your heart pumps about 1 million barrels of blood during an average lifetime – that is equivalent to more than 3 super tankers
- A kitchen faucet would need to be turned on all the way for at least 45 years to equal the amount of blood pumped by the heart in an average lifetime
- 75 trillion cells in the body receive blood from the heart – only the corneas don’t
- The Blue Whale’s is the largest in the world– weighing in at 1,500 pounds
- The fairy fly, which is a kind of wasp, has the smallest heart.
- The human heart is not on the left hand side of the body, it’s in the middle
- Vegetarians are 19% less likely to die from heart disease
- It is simply a myth that a sneeze stops the heart
- Heart attacks happen most often on Monday mornings
- Your heartbeat changes and mimics the music you listen to
- Did you know the human heart is not ‘heart shaped’? In fact, a cow’s heart is more heart shaped than a human’s!
- Grab a tennis ball and squeeze it tightly, that’s how hard the beating heart works to pump blood around the body
Written by Blaire Czarniecki
Customer Service Director
Fact checked by Phillip Woods, BA, NREMT-P, FP-C
Blaire attended the University of Tennessee where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Human Ecology- Child and Family Studies. She has been in the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) industry for over eight years and is the Director of Customer Service for Coro Medical. Blaire is also an American Red Cross-certified CPR/AED/First Aid Instructor, highly trained by each manufacturer on their specific AEDs, and knowledgeable regarding ALL State AED regulations and legislation.
“I know that every day I come to work, I am playing a part in saving someone’s life. I am passionate about these devices and am always looking for new and innovative ways to spread awareness and knowledge about Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA). I look forward to the day when everywhere I go, I will see an AED—when SCA will no longer take any lives.”
Last updated February 3, 2020