This is Heart Rhythm Week, during which the Arrhythmia Alliance hope to check a record number of pulse checks in a week and make people more aware of their heart rhythm.
1. Aristotle believed that the heart was the source of intelligence and the brain only cooled the blood.
2. An octopus has three hearts, two to pump blood through the gills, one to pump it around the body.
3. The average human heart beats around 100,000 times a day and pumps over 2,000 gallons of blood.
4. 200 years ago in 1816 René Laennec invented the stethoscope to hear heartbeats as he thought it improper to place his ear on women’s chests.
5. The heart of a blue whale can weigh over 1,500lb.
6. A human heart is about the size of two hands clasped together and weighs 11 ounces.
7. Women’s hearts beat faster than men’s by about eight beats a minute.
8. William Harvey announced his discovery that the heart circulates blood around the body in 1616, 400 years ago.
9. Before that it was generally believed that the heart constantly produced new blood.
10. The King of Hearts is the only king in a deck of cards without a moustache. He is thought to have been modelled on Charlemagne.