Thursday, February 14, 2013

In honor of Valentine's Day, here are a few human heart facts:

1. Your circulatory system is composed of a 60,000-mile-long (97,000-kilometer-long) network of blood vessels.

2. Your heart beats about 100,000 times a day.

3. That means your heart beats about 40 million times in a year.

4. Your heart will probably beat about 3 billion times in your lifetime.

5. Your heart is about the size of your clenched fist.

6. Your heart is made of cardiac muscle, so it works involuntarily.

7. Your heart has four chambers.

8. The largest artery in your body is called the aorta (Tip: though you don't want any of your arteries to get cut, this particular one would be very bad to nick. Estimates vary, but you would have seconds to live if your aorta were to rupture).

9. The heart has special pacemaker cells which generate the electrical impulse that makes your heart beat. These cells allow the heart to beat without input from the brain, so your heart can technically beat outside of your body, though not for very long. Your brain is responsible for speeding up or slowing down your heart rate.

10. Your heart works hard, so take good care of it!

To learn more about the heart, go to:

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-body/heart-article/

Photo courtesy of:

http://www.wisegeek.com/why-should-i-donate-my-organs.htm#

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