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Article: The beat goes on ... long live the healthy heart! (includes related articles)
- Article from:
- Current Events, a Weekly Reader publication
- Article date:
- October 1, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 Weekly Reader Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Beat Goes On... Long Live the Healthy Heart!
It flutters when you're flustered, races when you run, and skips a beat when something startles you. Poets say it's where love lives. Scientists know it's the pump that keeps your body's transportation system moving. It's your heart: a pear-shaped muscular structure about the size of your fist.
It pumps 2,000 gallons of blood each day, and beats about 2.5 billion times in a lifetime. As the heart contracts and relaxes, blood pulses to the far reaches of the body and back again through 12,400 miles of blood vessels, replenishing the body's supply of oxygen and nutrients and removing waste.
The ...