We Heart The Heart

• A woman’s heart weighs about 8 ounces and a man’s about 10 ounces.

• A woman’s average heartbeat is faster than a man’s by about eight beats per minute.

• Your heart beats about 100,000 times per day and about 3 billion times during your life.

• Each minute, your heart pumps 1.5 gallons of blood (about 2,500 gallons daily) through 60,000 miles of blood vessels.

• An average heart valve is about the size of a half dollar.

• Your aorta — the largest artery — is about the diameter of a garden hose.

See AlsoA Fit Female’s Guide To Heart Disease

• The right side of your heart pumps blood to the lungs, while the left side pumps it to your body.

• Your heart has its own electrical impulse and therefore can keep beating even if separated from your body (and provided adequate oxygen).

• Your heart provides blood to about 75 trillion cells.

• The thump-thump sound of a heartbeat is the four valves closing.

• Your left lung is smaller than your right to make room for your heart.

• Your heart is actually located in the center of your chest, not on the left side of your body.

• The largest heart on earth belongs to the blue whale, weighing about 2,000 pounds; the smallest is the Etruscan shrew, weighing 1.2 grams.