11 Surprising Heart Facts That Will Pump You Up

The most important fact is that you only have ONE heart. Be good to your heart and learn more about how heart failure affects millions of lives at Keep It Pumping, a Novartis sponsored awareness campaign.

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That's about 35 million times in a year. In an average lifetime, that's more than 2.5 billion heartbeats.

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A study compared the heart activity of 32 couples. It was seen that after three minutes of getting lost in each other's eyes, the heart activities of each individual began to unconsciously co-regulate.

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This feat is accomplished without its nerve supply.

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The aorta is the largest artery of your body.

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The singing requires slower-than-normal breathing, which affects heart rate.

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The foramen ovale typically closes after the baby takes its first breath.

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The Egyptians believed an individual's heart displayed all of their good and bad deeds. The god Anubis would weigh the heart in comparison to the feather of truth. If the heart was lighter than the feather, the person would survive and continue on to the afterlife.

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These effects are said to last up to 24 hours.

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Also known as the bicuspid or left atrioventricular valve, the mitral's word origin is derived from the Latin word mitre, meaning shaped like a mitre.

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To put that in perspective, the average human heart is about 0.39 feet long, 0.61 pounds, and pumps 0.02 gallons with each beat.

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Heart failure is the inability to pump blood and oxygen properly due to weakening heart muscles.

Heart failure affects so many lives around the world. Find out more from Novartis at Keep It Pumping.

Courtesy of Novartis