Human Heartbeats in a Lifetime

In one of my Yahoo Groups Forum, a former colleague – Bong Fornal, posted a piece on “ Strange Facts About Our Human Body ”, which states a particularly interesting line:

“ Your heart beats some 37,000,000 times a year. During your lifetime, it will beat some two-and-a-half billion times.”

Well, it caught my attention because just few days ago, I have posted on my blog: “ On Slowing Down ” , a passage about the heart of hummingbirds, quoting part of an essay from The American Scholar by Brian Doyle.

“ Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime. You can spend them slowly, like a tortoise, and live to be two hundred years old, or you can spend them fast, like a hummingbird, and live to be two years old.”

Please take note now of the proximity of the data: two-and-a-half billion times versus approximately two billion heartbeats.

Of course, the most accurate way of measuring the actual heartbeat of a human being is to hold on to his wrist with forefingers then record the rhythm of the pulse or tap a stethoscope on his chest and listen on the heartbeat. Since we are trying to find out the lifetime average heartbeat of a human being, then we have to commission a number of replicate samples, from birth to death. In this case, there is big possibility that the sample will outlive the one doing such chores. You see, it’s very complicated to know the bare truth, so I abandoned such idea.

Due to that cumbersome research method, I was constrained to challenge my humble mathematical sense.

To keep my work simple, I consulted a reliable source for my facts and figures.

“ Wikipedia says: Heart rate is a term used to describe the frequency of the cardiac cycle… Usually it is calculated as the number of contractions (heartbeats) of the heart in one minute and expressed as “beats per minute” (bpm)… The heart beats up to120 times per minute in childhood… and the adolescent’s about 80-100 bpm. … when resting, the average adult human heart beats at about 70 bpm (males) and 75 bpm (females), however, this rate varies among people and can be significantly lower in athletes.”

“ Wikipedia further states: Life expectancy is the average number of years a human has before death, conventionally calculated from the time of birth… Homo sapiens live on average 32.6 years in Swaziland and on average 81 years in Japan. The oldest confirmed recorded age for any human is 122years, though some people are reported to have lived longer.”

The following information is derived from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961, as well as other sources:

Humans Average Lifespan (years) by Eras

Neanderthal, 20

Upper Paleolithic, 33

Neolithic, 20

Bronze Age, 18

Classical Greece, 20 - 30

Pre-Colombian North America, 25 - 35

Medieval Britain, 20 - 30

Early 20^th Century, 30 - 40

Current World Average, 67

With those above given data, I will use them whether you agree or not.

Ave. Bpm = {(80-100Adol) + 70M + 75F}/3 samples = 78.33 Bpm

Ave. World Lifespan = 67 yrs = 25,550days = 613,200hrs. = 35,215,200 mins.

Therefore: 32,215,200 mins x 78.33 beats/mins = 2,523,416,616 heartbeats in a lifetime

Rounded off: 2.5B - HB

Oh, yeah, it feels good.

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