How much do you know about the heart?
It’s about the size of a person’s fist and weighs approximately 300 grams
It’s the pump of the body and never takes any rest
It beats around 100,000 times per day to nourish the body with oxygen and nutrients
It’s your heart and you must take care of it!
The heart is the hardest working muscle in a human’s body, pumping approximately five litres of blood per minute. It supplies the entire body with oxygen and nutrients and helps to remove waste products such as carbon dioxide.
There are a number of risk factors that increase the chances of developing coronary heart disease, some of which cannot be changed and some which may be improved with lifestyle and treatment.
Risk factors you can change or improve:
- Smoking
- High blood pressure
- Undesirable cholesterol levels in your blood
- Being overweight/obese
- Diabetes
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Stress
- Alcohol
- Diet
Risk factors you cannot change:
- Being 45 years and older for men, 55 years and older for women
- Having a close family history of early heart disease
We have put together a special page that gives more information about this vital organ, how it functions, highlights common heart illnesses and provides some tips on how you can make lifestyle changes to decrease your risk of heart disease, and improve your cardiac and overall health
