All about your heart

Your system of blood vessels — arteries, veins and capillaries — is more than 60,000 miles long. That's long enough to go around the world more than twice.

An adult heart pumps about 5 quarts of blood each minute — about 2,000 gallons of blood each day — throughout the body.

When trying to locate their heart, most people place their hand on their left chest. Actually, your heart is located in the center of your chest between your lungs. The bottom of the heart is tipped to the left, so you feel more of your heart on your left side of your chest.

The average heartbeat is 72 times a minute.

The heart beats about 100,000 times a day and about 35 million times in a year.

In a 70-year lifetime, the average human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times.

An adult woman's heart weighs about 8 ounces; a man's weighs about 10 ounces.

A child's heart is about the size of a clenched fist; an adult's heart is about the size of two fists.

Blood is about 78 percent water.

Blood takes about 20 seconds to circulate throughout the entire vascular system.

The heart pumps about 1 million barrels of blood during an average lifetime.

Source: The Cleveland Clinic, Heart & Vascular Institute and PBS

A healthy heart

Since your heart is a muscle, it's important to keep it strong like any other muscle in your body.

Exercising and eating healthy are some of the ways to maintain a healthy heart. If not, your heart can get sick with disease. Some people have heart attacks, strokes, heart disease and high blood pressure. Here are some ways to make sure your heart stays strong.

Avoid tobacco. Smoking cigarettes is one of the main causes of heart disease. For your heart's sake, never smoke!

Get moving. Being active helps your heart circulate blood throughout your body. Get involved in sports or stay physically active by jumping rope, playing basketball or dancing.

Eat healthy. Avoid foods with a lot of fat, sugar, salt and cholesterol.

What's
that sound?

Your heart makes a distinctive sound when it's working. With each beat, it sounds like "Lub-Dub." The "lub" and "dub" sounds are made by the heart valves as they open and close.

The beat
of your heart

Feel your heart in action by checking your pulse. It is a way to find out how fast your heart is pumping. Using two fingers, feel your pulse by lightly pressing on pulse points on your body. The best places to check are on your neck or wrists.

The pulse you feel is blood stopping and starting as it moves through your arteries.

A kid's pulse will range from 90 to 120 beats a minute. An adult has an average pulse rate of 72 each minute. Take time to check your pulse by counting the number of beats you feel in one minute.