7 Facts About Your Heart They Didn’t Teach You in Biology Class

Do you know what your heart is made up of? Read on to learn little known, but truly amazing facts about your heart

Read fun facts about your own ticker.

(Photo: iStock)

Did you know that when a choir sings their heart rates synchronize? And that your heart pumps more than one lakh times a day, 35 million times a year and over 2.5 billion times in a lifetime.

Scroll down for fun facts about the hardest working muscle in your body that are hard to beat:

1. Your Heart is Not on the Left Side of Your Chest

Did you know this about your heart?  (Photo: The Quint)

Although most of us place our right hand on our left chest when we express love filmy style, we really should be placing it over the center of our chest, because that’s where our hearts sit. Your heart is in middle of your chest, in between your right and left lung. It is, however, tilted slightly to the left.

2. Red Wine Lowers Blood Pressure and Burns Fat

Cheers! (Photo: Youtube/ The Quint)

Dear red wine lovers, rejoice! A glass of merlot is equal to one hour of gymming, reduces blood clots thereby bringing down your cardiovascular risk. Caution: the key is “moderate” consumption, that is, 4 to 5 glasses in a week.

Other than the fact that red wine is still an alcoholic beverage, which isn’t exactly the greatest thing to put in your body, cheers to a purple-stained smile!

3. The Human Heart Can Squirt Blood 30 Feet

No wonder you can feel your heartbeat so easily. (Photo: Youtube/ The Quint)

This is so Dexter Morgan-type-crazy!

As gross as it sounds, it is true. Pumping blood from your toes to your brain takes a lot of pressure, so the human heart has to be strong enough to tackle that task. But 30 feet is like twice the length of a double decker bus!

4. Your Heart is Mostly Water!

It’s a sea inside your body!

All the more reason to stay hydrated. (Photo: The Quint)

Seriously, your heart and even the brain, are made up of 3/4th parts of water! But thank the Lord, it justifies my weight.

5. More Reasons to Have Sex

Sex is exercise. More reasons to get out there and get busy. (Photo: The Quint)

Orgasms. They get your heart racing and your blood pumping but aren’t an official Olympic event yet! Well, a 2010 study published in the American Journal of Cardiology, found that men who had sex at least twice a week were less likely to develop heart disease compared with men who had sex only once a month.

The most obvious way sex benefits your heart is the fact that it’s a bit of a workout. And a good sex life also helps prevent erectile dysfunction in men and sexual dysfunction in women.

So what you waiting for?

6. Feeling Hurt Can Hurt the Heart

Yep, social rejection matters! (Photo: The Quint)

Humans love love!

Feelings of dislike, rejection are not just heartbreaking but also make your heart rate drop. Scientists in the Netherlands have proved that feeling disappointed can cause the heart rate to slow for a moment, or even longer.

The bottom line: Feeling as if you’ve been rejected can cause both psychological and physical reactions.

7. Broken Heart Syndrome is Real and Rough

Breaking-up can literally break your heart (Photo: Youtube/ The Quint)

The pain of a break-up is not just in your head. Break-ups are not roller coasters but more like being under a roller coaster!

Anyone who has experienced real heartbreak knows that it’s not just a melodramatic term. The aching, tight feeling that accompanies such sadness is uncomfortable, but usually not disconcerting.

Broken heart syndrome, also known as stress cardiomyopathy, is a sudden weakness in the heart muscle due to a severely stressful situation. It has the same symptoms as a heart attack – difficulty breathing, chest pain, and a drop in blood pressure -– but while a heart attack permanently damages the heart, a broken heart syndrome’s effects are temporary.