Heart Trivia

How many facts do you know about your heart aside from it being the most important organ in your body?

Your heart is the size of your fist and has a right and a left side.

• The right side pumps the blood to your lungs.
• The left side gets the blood from your lungs and pumps it all through your body.

Each side of your heart has two chambers, top and bottom.

• The top chambers are called atria.
• The bottom chambers are called ventricles.

Your blood goes in a cycle.  When it returns it goes through the atria. Blood travels out through the ventricles.

Do you know what separates the two chambers of the heart?  It is called the septum.

• The septum is a very thick wall of muscle.

There are four valves in your heart that manage your blood flow. 

• The mitral and tricuspid valves flow blood from the atria (top chamber) to the ventricles (bottom chamber.)
• The aortic and pulmonary valves are in charge of controlling the flow of your blood.

Before each heart beat, blood fills your heart.  As it contracts it pushes the blood out.

• Your heart beat is fast as a baby and young child and slows to an average as you age.
• An adult heart when resting beats on average of 60-100 beats per minute (bpm)
• If you are a well-trained athlete your heart beat can be 40-60 bpm – wow!

Your body needs paths to flow the blood.  These paths are called your arteries and your veins.

• The arteries carry your blood away from your heart.
• The veins carry back to your heart.

Private Home Health Care hopes you’ve enjoyed these facts about your heart.  We do a lot of exercise to keep our hearts healthy.  We hope you can too.

Photo by Engin Akyurt