The heart is an amazing organ. Not only is it the strongest muscle we have, it is the ambassador of emotions, without it we could not live, since it is responsible for irrigating life to our entire body.
It is also the body to which writers and romantics of every imaginable profession have dedicated some of their best works. Thus, even though we know that the person responsible for falling in love is the brain, it is the heart that continues to be used as a symbol of love and passion throughout the world.
The cardiovascular system is made up of the heart and blood vessels and is what circulates blood through the body to supply oxygen and nutrients. The heart pumps oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood, keeping it moving in the body within a closed circuit.
And the heartbeat? The heart’s electrical system is what controls the speed of the heartbeat. Specifically, it beats about 115,000 times a day, that is, an average of 80 times per minute or about 42 million times a year.
Throughout an average life, the human heart will beat more than 3,000 million times, because the heart never rests. Sleeping or awake, our heart muscle continues to work hard and pump so much blood that we could fill nearly a million barrels in a lifetime.
World Heart Day is celebrated every year on September 29. And it has been held without interruption since 2000 to publicize cardiovascular diseases, their prevention, control and treatment.
The Spanish Heart Foundation reminds us that if we all ate a healthy diet and exercised regularly, we would be taking some key steps to ensure that cardiovascular diseases are no longer the leading cause of death in the world. And is that, if we do not change our lifestyle habits, estimates suggest that this number will grow and reach 23 million deaths in 2030.
To avoid this, eat and drink well; monitor your blood glucose level; be physically active; control your blood pressure; Quit tobacco if you are a smoker and keep your cholesterol levels and your BMI (Body Mass Index) at bay.
