Health priority

3 billion beats: all you need to know about how the heart works

The heart beats nearly 70 times per minute.

© Shutterstock - Illus_man

By: Igor Strauss

1 min

Our heart beats on average 1.16 times per second, or almost 70 times per minute, more than 100,000 times per day and 36.8 million times per year.

The heart will have beaten 3 billion times for a person who reaches the age of 80.

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This muscle, barely a few centimeters long, is the only one that never rests.

However, not all hearts beat at the same rate, depending on each person's physiology and physical condition.

When we rest, the heart beats between 60 and 100 times per minute.

In training, its rate quickens because it has to pump blood faster to supply the body's cells with the oxygen and nutrients needed to function during exercise.

How does the heart work?

How is the heart rate regulated?

What are the most common heart diseases?

How to take good care of your heart?

  • Dr Emmanuelle Berthelot,

    cardiologist, hospital doctor and head of a clinical unit in the cardiology department of a hospital in the Paris region.

    Specialized in heart failure and therapeutic patient education.

    Author of

    3 billion beats, the secret of our heart

    , published by Rocher

  • Pr Abdoul Kane,

    Head of Cardiology Department at

    Dalal Jam Hospital

    ;

    Professor of Cardiology at the

    University of Dakar

    , President of the

    Senegalese Society of Cardiology.

  • Sabrina Lamerant,

    suffered a heart attack in 2021. Patient and Ambassador of 

    the Women's Heart Bus

At the end of the program, we find the sports chronicle of

Dr. Jean Marc Sène

, sports doctor.

► All chronicles are accessible

here

.

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