9 Heart-warming Reasons for Why You Should Look After Your Heart.

(3-minute read)

Thank you, Rachel!

I’m Rachel’s heart and I want to write about a subject which is very close to my chest (‘scuse the pun!)

Myself and over 7 billion of us work 24/7 keeping you humans alive. I’m hoping this article will tug on your heartstrings and persuade you readers to look after us better.

Here are some facts which Rachel has kindly found for me.

1. We beat around 115,000 times a day.

2. We pump about 2,000 gallons of blood each day. Each heartbeat pumps approximately 4 tbsp of blood. You have 60,000 blood vessels which can stretch around the world, twice.

3. We can carry on beating, even if we’re disconnected from your bodies.

4. All your cells get blood from us, apart from your corneas.

5. On average we beat about 8 times faster in women than in men.

6. The right side of us pump blood into your lungs while our left side pumps it back into your bodies.

7. The American pygmy shrew is the smallest mammal but, has the fastest heartbeat at a whopping 1,200 beats per minute! (Human hearts beat about 60-90 beats per minute.)

8. While the blue whale has the largest heart weighing over 400 pounds!

9. Heart cancer is very rare because our cells stop dividing early in your lives.

Other Facts About Hearts, Some Not So Good.

Heart disease has been found in 3,000 year old mummies.

We can break 💔. Life situations can cause temporary heart failure.

The most number of heart attacks occur on Christmas Day, closely followed by Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

There is a good reason why you humans hate Mondays. That is the day when more heart attacks happen than any other day of the week.

Cardiovascular Disease causes an estimate of 17 million deaths worldwide, accounting for 1/3 of ALL deaths worldwide.

In developed countries, heart disease and stroke are the 1st and 2nd leading cause of death among adult men and women.

So What Can You Do to Protect Us.

The good news is that a lot of these deaths can be prevented by:-

• Eating leafy green vegetables, whole grains such as whole wheat, brown rice, oats, berries, avocados, fish oils such as salmon, mackerel and sardines, beans, dark chocolate (yay…!), tomatoes, seeds like chia seeds and flaxseeds, garlic, olive oil, edamame beans and green tea.

• Eating some meals without meat. If you do eat meat, go for lean cuts.

• Consuming low fat dairy products.

Try to avoid or at least cut down on foods high in saturated fat like pies, fried foods, cakes and biscuits.

Cut down on salt.

Cut down on alcohol.

Other ways to keep us healthy:-

• Be physically active. Current recommendation is 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week.

• Meet up with friends. Loneliness is linked to the hardening of your arteries which can lead to high blood pressure and an increased risk of heart disease.

• Practice meditation. Scientists have discovered that people with heart disease who practised Transcendental Meditation for just 15 minutes a day, can cut their risk of heart attack and stroke by half, compared to those that don’t. Even deep breathing for 20 minutes a day would make a difference.

So. There you have it. Please, please, PLEASE look after us. Billions of hearts and myself only have your best interests at heart. If you look after us, we’ll look after you lot. It’s as simple as that really. Thank you for reading this post. ❤

Thank you, heart. I hope you enjoyed this post. What would your heart say to you? Let me know in the comments box below.

Sources: healthline.com, healthknowledge.org.uk, heart.org, nhs.uk, heartfoundation.org.uk, ageuk.org.uk, templehealth.org, health.clevelandclinic.org