Don’t take your heart for granted; take care of it

Your heart works hard for you, but do you realize just how hard it actually works?

Your heart is the engine of your circulatory system, beating around 100,000 times a day to pump 2,000 gallons (7,570 liters) worth of blood through your vessels. That’s a lot of pumping!

Your circulatory system works with the cardiovascular system to help support immunity, help your body maintain temperature, among many other key functions.

Want to learn more? Check out these fun facts about that amazing muscle in your chest.

Twice around the globe

The average adult has 60,000 miles (96,560 kilometers) of blood vessels running through their body, more than enough to stretch around the globe—twice!

That’s 60,000 miles of arteries, veins and capillaries. The arteries carry oxygenated blood away from your heart, veins carry deoxygenated blood back to the heart and capillaries connect the two.

Blood is thicker than water

They say that blood is thicker than water, but did you know that blood is about 78% water? One drop has about 5,000,000 red blood cells, 10,000 white blood cells and 250,000 platelets.

Pump it up

The average adult heart beats 60-100 times per minute, or about 100,000 a day. That’s about 3 billion beats during an average lifetime. Newborns’ hearts beat faster, about 70-190 beats per minute.

Heart size

Your heart continues to grow in weight and size well into adulthood. Children’s hearts are about the size of one of their clenched fists. An adult heart is about the size of a two average adult fists.

Take care of it

Research shows it is never too early to protect your heart. Conditions that contribute to heart disease like high blood pressure or high cholesterol, are being identified more frequently in younger patients, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Take steps to protect your heart with these tips, and learn how to choose supplements that support your heart health here.