Provided by Chiropractic Newsletter, Your Amazing Body published by ICPA Inc., written by Judy Nutz Campanale, DC, ACP, FCSC (hon)
You can credit their recent popularity to American singer-songwriter, Taylor Swift, but hand hearts are actually used everywhere in the world, by young and old, celebrities and ordinary every day folk. You may have made one for your best friend to show you care. Or maybe you’ve made one for a picture that was being taken of you. You know what I’m talking about… that sign you make when you form the shape of a heart with your fingers. You curl the fingers of both hands down with your thumbs pointing downward and then put them together to form a heart shape. It’s just a small gesture but its meaning and impact can be huge. There are few things sweeter than being told you are loved.
Similarly, our actual hearts, though small, have enormous impact on the quality of our lives. If you want to know how big your heart is, make a fist. In a healthy person, heart size depends on the size of the person, so the bigger you get, the bigger your heart (and your fist) get.
Your heart is a muscle and its job is to pump blood. Your heart pumps blood to every corner of your body by beating and beating A LOT. Your amazing heart beats about 100,000 times a day! Most people have a heart rate between 60 and 100 beats per minute. That means your heart beats at least once every second.
Every minute, your heart pumps about five quarts of blood through a system of arteries and blood vessels that is over 60,000 miles long! This adds up to about 2,000 gallons of blood every day.
Of course, exercising will increase your heart rate so that muscles can get more blood, faster. On the other hand, when you sleep at night, your heart rate slows down. Your heart rate may drop below 60 beats per minute and some may even drop into the 40s.
You would think with all this pumping, your heart would wear out, but the opposite might actually be true. Pumping is what your heart is built for. In fact, recent research shows that not moving enough is associated with increases in heart disease. That’s why it’s important no matter what age you are to get up off the couch and get moving!!!
Exercising regularly isn’t the only thing you can do to keep your heart healthy either. The heart, like every other organ of the body, needs a proper nerve supply to function at its best. To keep your heart at its best, you have to keep your nerve system healthy and your chiropractor can help you with that. By insuring that the bones of the spine are not distorting the communication in your nerve system, your chiropractor can help you be healthy and strong so you can hand heart your loved ones for a long time to come.