Have a Heart

February is Heart Health Month... What do you know about the heart?

• The 'heart' shape we use now was probably an effort to draw the heart before people knew what it looked like inside the body. 

                Cross-section, human heart. All mammal hearts look very similar.... such as:

                                        This is a pig's heart

                                         This is the heart of a dog

• A human heart beats about 70 times a minute in men, 78 times a minute in women.
• A transplanted heart beats about 100-110 times per minute.
• The left lung is a little smaller than the right so there is enough room for the heart.
• The heart weighs about 11 ounces and is about the size of your fist.
• Your heart beats 100,000 times a day and 2.5 billion times in a lifetime.

• It pumps 2000 gallons of blood every day.
• All mammal hearts have four chambers.
• That  'thump-thump' sound the heart makes is due to the four heart valves opening and closing.
• The only organs in your body that do not receive blood are the corneas in your eyes.
• Cocaine interferes with the heart's electrical activity and can stop the heart.
• There are some prescription drugs that can affect your heart rate.
• Methamphetamines affect the heart.
• Caffeine can make your heart rate speed up, as can decongestants and being dehydrated.
• Anxiety can make your heart beat irregularly (the mind/body connection).
• 30% of people who die of heart disease are smokers, and at least 20% of people die from smoking-related disease that may not be of the heart: Emphysema, for example. Stop smoking!

• In 2006, death rates due to heart disease were the worst in Mississippi and the fewest in Minnesota.
• Heart disease kills 500,000 women a year and 450,000 men a year.
• CT scans of ancient Egyptian mummies show that they had heart disease....and this was long before fast food diets and people not having enough activity, which is known to cause heart disease now.
• Women's heart attack symptoms are more likely to include a feeling of nausea, indigestion, and pain in the jaw or the shoulder.
• Men's heart attack symptoms are typically sweating, pain down the left arm, shortness of breath, and chest pain.
• A panic attack can mimic a heart attack.

Someone with an irregular heartbeat may be fitted with a pacemaker that will regulate his or her heart. Learn about pacemakers here: http://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/pacemaker/basics/why-its-done/prc-20014279

An EKG:

 

 

Take Care Of Your Heart!!