So it’s February, the time of year when people focus on the one day of the year we dedicate to Love. St Valentine’s Day.
Who was this man? who was St Valentine? Some say he was a priest who was beheaded by emperor Claudius II for helping Christian couples wed, some say similar but that he was the bishop of Terni who was martyred for similar acts. Whoever he was, his work has survived the centuries for us all to appreciate the matters of the heart. So this months blogs will all be centred round this amazing feat of physical evolutionary engineering THE HEART.
So to start us of here are 14 (see what we did there) fun facts about the heart to help you learn more about this precious organ and learn to look after it.
What is the Heart?
The heart is a powerful organ made of something called cardiac muscle; the function of the heart is to constantly pump blood around the body, it uses the same energy over a lifetime that it takes to lift a battleship out of the water – pretty impressive for a muscle about the size of your fist.
Fact 1
By the time you reach your 70th birthday your heart will beat more than two and a half billion times (2,500,000,000 – that’s a lot of zeros).
Fact 2
The heart pumps blood from veins into arteries; the heart, veins and arteries make up bodily system called the circulatory system
Fact 3
How big is the human heart? The average heart size is about the size of a fist measuring around 12 cm long, 9 cm wide and 6 cm thick
What are the main parts of the heart? The main parts of the heart consist of: the Aorta, the left ventricle and left atrium, and the right ventricle and right atrium. The heart is divided into two parts, left and right.
Fact 4
The word “atrium” means entrance hall in Latin and the word “ventricle” means “little belly” (quite like that “the entrance hall to the little belly).
The right side of the heart receives blood from the body in the upper chamber, the blood flows to the lower chamber before it is pumped out of the heart to the lungs. The left side receives blood back from the lungs in the upper chamber, the blood flows to the lower chamber before it is pumped back to the body
Fact 5
You can feel your heart beat in the side of your wrist and to the side of your throat. The feel of your heart beat is called your pulse. Average pulse rates are 75-110 bpm (beats per minute) for a 7-12 year old and 75-100 bpm for ages 12 and above
Fact 6
Why does my heart sometimes beat faster? If you are excited or exercise your heart beats faster, this is because your heart needs to works harder and faster to get more oxygen to your muscles to help them to work effectively
What is the difference between an artery and a vein? Arteries carry the blood away from the heart and veins carry the blood back to the heart.
Fact 7
An easy way to remember the difference is arteries begin with an ‘A’ for ‘away’. Veins begin with a V if you put your fingers into a V shape they point towards your heart
Fact 8
The name of the artery that carries the blood away from the heart to the lungs is the pulmonary artery. The pulmonary vein carries the blood from the lungs to the heart (it is the only vein to carry oxygenated blood to the heart).
Fact 9
It beats around 70 times a minute in the average adult – but it’s the hummingbird that holds the record for the fastest heart rate at 1,200 beats a minute as it flaps its wings. Where as the blue whales heart (which is the the largest heart) beats between four and eight beats a minute.
Fact 10
Your heart pumps approximately 7,200 litres of blood a day, enough to fill a small paddling pool.
Fact 11
Your heart makes your blood travel 19,000 km everyday – the same distance as flying from London to Hong Kong.
Fact 12
The giraffe has a lopsided heart, with their left ventricle being thicker than the right. This is because the left side has to get blood up the giraffe’s long neck to reach their brain
Fact 13
When the body is at rest, it takes only six seconds for the blood to go from the heart to the lungs and back, only eight seconds for it to go the brain and back, and only 16 seconds for it to reach the toes and travel all the way back to the heart.
Fact 14
Grab a tennis ball and squeeze it tightly: that’s how hard the beating heart works to pump blood
So now you have a few amazing facts about the heart. Look after this little power house. It needs you and you need it
So it has been a while since we last posted, summer has passed, children are back at school and people have gone back to work. Life Goes on……….But what happens when life suddenly stops? more specifically when the heart stops! Would you know what to do? would you be able to recognise it.
Lets start with some figures and i am sure this will surprise you quite a bit. A new report, Resuscitation to Recovery, reveals that currently just 8 per cent of patients survive a cardiac arrest in England, and less than half (30-40%) of bystanders intervene when they witness someone collapse. (www.bhf.org.uk) Scary isn’t it? would you be confident enough to help someone who collapsed in the street? would you be able to help a loved one if this happened at home? A cardiac arrest can happen anytime, anywhere. Sometimes even the professionals can get caught out….
What is a Cardiac Arrest?
Many people use the term heart attack and Cardiac arrest interchangeably but a heart attack and a cardiac arrest are very different and are not the same thing.
BOTH are life threatening and can be deadly, but a heart attack and a cardiac arrest are very different. A cardiac arrest, also known as cardiopulmonary arrest, happens when your heart suddenly stops pumping blood around your body. this can be as a result of a heart attack, drugs, illness or from a traumatic incident.
Someone who has had a cardiac arrest will collapse unconscious.
Their breathing will stop sometimes it may be noisy or irregular (this is known as agonal breathing, if in doubt start CPR) , and they will be unresponsive.
When a cardiac arrest happens there is no time to lose, it is a life-threatening emergency and calling 999 is vital. While waiting for an ambulance performing CPR (Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) can help keep a person alive.
How to perform CPR
Although it can be very scary, you MUST remember what you are doing will be helping give the person the best possible chance of survival. Get yourself on a quality assured course become proficient in the simple skills.
Check for Danger – to you and the patient
Check For a Response ARE THEY AWAKE? TALKING TO YOU
Check Airway – Tilt the head back gently (Head tilt, Chin Lift)
Check Breathing – are they breathing (no longer than 10 seconds)
If NOT breathing Shout for help/Call 999 and start CPR immediately
Chest Compressions
Put your hands on the centre of their chest (one hand over the other) push down hard 30 times
Rescue Breaths
Tilt the head back, pinch the nose closed and make a seal around their mouth with your mouth and blow – watch for their chest to rise and fall and repeat. (Twice ONLY) then continue the cycle until help arrives.
In the majority of cases, the killer reason causing the cardiac arrest is caused by an abnormal heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation (VF).
VF is an electrical fault, where the electrical activity of the heart gets so chaotic the heart stops pumping suddenly, and quivers instead.
This CAN be rectified either by the Paramedics and now YOU. yes YOU……. More and more we are seeing publicly available defibrillators also known as AED (Automatic External defibrillator). If one is available get someone to get it and follow the instructions.
Unlike television people do not normally regain consciousness and get up after a little bit of CPR so do not be surprised if nothing seems to have changed whilst you are waiting for help. DO REMEMBER that what YOU are doing is giving them every chance of survival.
KBT FIRST AID TRAINING 