What Has Your Heart Been Up To Today?
Your heart is an amazing organ.
Located between the lungs near the center of your body, the heart is about the size of your fist.
It is actually two pumps contained in the one organ. Each half of your heart pumps about 8,000 liters of blood each day.
While in the lungs, blood absorbs oxygen before passing through the left side of your heart which spreads your blood throughout your body to provide oxygen and nutrients to your tissues. As it makes its journey through you body it picks up carbon dioxide and waste material from your body's tissues before passing through the right side pump on its way back to the lungs where the carbon dioxide is exchanged for fresh oxygen. This circuit is repeated more than 1000 times per day.
Every 24 hours this amazing little organ of yours pumps enough blood to fill the tanks of 400 cars!
Your Red Blood Cells
Your red blood cells are what carries the oxygen molecules to your tissues. They live for about 120 days. To maintain the required level of red blood cells in your blood, your body's bone marrow has to produce about 200,000,000,000 new cells each day. Laid edge to edge, these cells would form a line 1,350 kilometers or about 840 miles long! The most productive bones are not the long bones of your arms and legs, but rather the bones of your skull, ribs and spine.
The White Blood Cells
White blood cells are what your body produces to fight infections. White blood cells move through your body under their own power. They are produced at the same rate as red blood cells yet there is only one white blood cell for every 500 red blood cells. White blood cells only live for 24 hours, such is the intensity of their battle against infections!
Your bones which produce both red and white blood cells also undergo a daily renewal process and in your life time your entire skeleton may be replaced as many as 30 times
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