The cardiovascular system is compromised of the heart, blood, and blood vessels. The three types of blood vessels are arteries, veins and capillaries. The cardiovascular system, also known as the circulatory system, transports blood and nutrients throughout our body.
- 1. The circulatory system is long!
- 2. When you’re 80 years old your heart will have beat 3,363,840,000 times!
- 3. Your heart pumps a lot of blood!
- 4. Blood is always red, never blue.
- 5. Blood comes in different shades of red.
- 6. The human heart is about as big as your fist.
- 7. Laughter is good for your heart.
- 8. The left side of the heart and the right side have different jobs.
- 9. Your heart doesn’t literally beat.
- 10. Heart disease is nothing new
1. The circulatory system is long!
If everything was laid out end to end, arteries, capillaries, and veins, it would stretch 60,000 miles/100,000 kilometers! All of that fits inside your body.
2. When you’re 80 years old your heart will have beat 3,363,840,000 times!
If your heart beats 80 beats per minute, 4,800 times an hour, and 115,200 times per day. That’s 42,048,000 times a year! Multiply that by 80 years of living and you’ve got 3,363,840,000 heartbeats in a lifetime. That heart definitely works hard.
3. Your heart pumps a lot of blood!
On average your heart will pump one to seven gallons of blood a minute. That’s as much as 2,000 gallons a day. There’s 365 days in a year so that’s 730,000 gallons of blood a year! When you’re 80 years old your heart will have pumped 58,400,000 gallons of blood.
4. Blood is always red, never blue.
Blood is always red but our veins are blue because of light waves. Light has to go through the skin to illuminate our veins. Red and blue have different wavelengths, so they penetrate at different degrees of success. This is why our veins look blue.
5. Blood comes in different shades of red.
The blood in our bodies isn’t blue but it is different shades of red. Oxygen rich blood is bright red where as blood with less oxygen is dark red. Veins have very little oxygen so the blood they carry is dark red, where as the arteries carry oxygen rich, bright red blood. The blue is what we see, but there is no blue blood in a human body.
6. The human heart is about as big as your fist.
If you’ve ever wondered how big your heart is just make a fist. That will give you an approximate size. Even though the heart isn’t very big, it’s the strongest muscle in our body. It has to be, in order to keep beating and pumping blood and nutrients to our body for our entire lives. Exercise and a healthy diet will keep your heart in great shape.
7. Laughter is good for your heart.
A good hearty laugh where your belly hurts and tears run down your eyes is actually great for heart health. It can send 20 percent more blood flowing through your body. This is because when you laugh, the lining of your blood vessels relax and expand. Laughter also helps reduce stress. So watch a funny movie and get a good laugh for a healthy heart!
8. The left side of the heart and the right side have different jobs.
The right side of the heart pumps blood to the lungs. The lungs give the blood oxygen and then is carried back to the heart. The left side of the heart pumps that now oxygen rich through the rest of your body.
9. Your heart doesn’t literally beat.
That thumping, beating sound you hear is caused by the valves clapping open and closed. There are four main valves in the heart, the aortic valve, pulmonary valve, mitral valve, and tricuspid valve. The heart isn’t actually beating but clapping open and closed.
10. Heart disease is nothing new
Signs of heart disease have been found in 3,000 year old mummies. If we should take anything from that it’s a lesson to take care of our hearts. Belly laughter, good diet, exercise, everything to keep that blood flowing strong.
Did you know this unusual fun facts about the cardiovascular system?
