9 AMAZING FACTS OF THE HEART ORGAN

ü   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.

ü   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.

ü   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.

ü   the greatest number of heart attacks occur each year on Christmas Day. The day after Christmas and New Year’s Day are close behind. More heart attacks happen on a Monday than any other day of the week.

ü   Other than the cornea, every cell in the human body gets blood from the heart. There are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body. That’s enough to go around the world twice.

ü   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.

ü   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 control¹.

ü   an adult heart is about the size of two hands clasped together. A child’s heart is about the size of a fist. The average heartbeat of a woman is about 8 beats a minute faster than a man’s heartbeat.

ü the human heart may continue to beat for up to a minute after removal from the body. However, the heart of an individual addicted to a drug, such as cocaine, can beat for a much longer period of time outside of the body. Cocaine causes the heart to work harder as it reduces blood flow to the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle.