Sometimes at night when I’m lying in bed, I hear my heart beating and I think to myself, “I’m glad that my heart is an involuntary muscle.” Can you imagine if you had to stay awake all the time so that you could think in order to make your heart continue? I rarely think about my heart, but whenever I do, I am amazed. I’m glad that it works without me doing anything.

Something else that I find rather amazing is how it can physically hurt when we are emotionally in pain. How does that work? I wish I had a doctor following on my blog so that someone could answer my question.

In honor of my heart, here are some fun facts that I have found…

-Women’s hearts beat faster than men’s hearts. This is not us trying to one-up you, men. This is simply a fact.
-The human heart can create enough pressure that it could squirt blood at a distance of 30 feet. In my world, that’s a pretty significant shot of blood!
-The average human heart beats roughly 35 million times a year. I’m not a math major, but that’s a high number.
-The human heart weighs less than a pound. Shoot. So I can’t blame any weight gain on that then…
-In a lifetime, the heart beats about one million barrels of blood. I do not know how long “lifetime” means or how big the barrels are, but I’m imagining that, given the 35 millions times a year that it beats, they’re probably not tiny barrels.
-Most heart attacks occur between the hours of 8 and 9 AM. A good reason to eat your Cheerios.
-At one time, it was thought that the heart controls the emotions. Maybe that’s the answer to my doctor question.
-Heart disease is the number one killer of adults in the U.S. Every day, 2,700 people die from heart disease. That’s a lot of people.
-When you are exercising, it takes about 10 to 12 seconds for blood to go from your heart to your big toe and back again. That is bloody fast!
-A child’s heart has to push blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels. That would be long enough to circle Earth about two and a half times.
-The heart of a giraffe is two feet long and weighs up to 24 pounds. I am so glad I am not a giraffe. That’s not even cool!