Guess who is the most hard-working organ in our body? We are talking about that organ which keeps pumping blood throughout our body and may even play a role in the matter of love! It’s our Heart ladies and gentlemen and it has no holidays.
- Our Heart is a pump: Well, not just a pump, but a super pump. Each organ of our body requires oxygen to survive. The heart pumps oxygen-rich blood to every organ of our body. Every day our heart beats about 1,00,000 times and pumps 2,000 gallons of blood to almost all of the body’s 75 trillion cells, except for the corneas in our eyes.
- Men and women’s hearts are different: There are subtle differences between the appearance of a man’s and a woman’s heart. An average man’s heart weighs 10 ounces while a woman’s heart weighs 8 ounces. However, a woman’s heart beats slightly faster than a man’s heart. The average heart rate of a man is 70 beats/minute, and that of a woman is 78 beats/minute.
- Our heart is not red: Despite the fact that we have known for years that a heart is of red color, it really isn’t red at all. The blood our heart pumps is red of course, but our heart itself is a little darker and browner than the blood. It is more the color of a colonial brick house. Furthermore, due to the abundant deposition of fat around the surface of the heart, our heart appears to look yellow.
- Our heart is not on the left side of our chest: Most of us think that our heart is on the left side of our chest. But the truth is that the heart is located between our right and left lung. However, it is slightly tilted towards the left. That’s why our left lung is slightly smaller than our right lung to make room for our heart.
- A bigger heart is not a better heart: Though a person with a big heart is considered admirable, but isn’t healthy. An enlarged heart can be dangerous since it’s weak and out of shape. When you have an enlarged heart, our body starts to retain fluid, our lungs get congested and our heart begins to beat irregularly. An average healthy heart weighs less than one pound and is roughly the size of our clenched fist.
- Our heart will continue to beat even if it’s removed from our body: If you have seen Indiana Jones movie ‘Temple of Doom’, it shows a heart continues to beat even after it has been ripped out from the chest. It is possible that our heart continues to beat even if it is removed from our body because it has its own electrical system that causes our heart to beat. And it will continue to do so as long as it receives oxygen even after getting separated from the body.
- You can have a heart attack without chest pain: The classic symptoms of coronary heart attack may include heaviness or tightness in our chest and shortness of breath. But, there are other symptoms of the heart attack which including fatigue, sweating, nausea, palpitation and neck or arm pain. People with any disease, particularly diabetes, may have no symptoms at all and a heart attack in this situation is called the silent heart attack.
