The heart, more than any other organ, stirs our imagination. Throughout history, people have expressed their love, kindness, and courage through stories, songs, and poems about the heart. But its primary function is far more practical: to keep us alive. This fist-sized muscle drives our circulatory system, tirelessly pumping oxygenated blood throughout our bodies. Its rhythm can quicken or slow down depending on our emotions, physical exertion, or even injury and disease. However, a healthy heart beats with steady and reliable rhythm.
But just how many times does this vital organ beat in a day, or even a lifetime? The answer isn’t as simple as you might think. Our heart rate fluctuates depending on our activity levels, with a faster beat when we’re exercising and a slower one when we’re at rest. Even our breathing affects our heart rate, with tiny fluctuations occurring with every inhale and exhale.
“The most interesting aspect of the heart is its ability to modulate its rate and its function depending upon the metabolic needs of the body,” explains Dr. Partho Sengupta, chief of cardiovascular medicine for Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University. “The physiology is continuously adapting — it almost has its own brain to sense the body’s needs.”
To understand how many times our heart beats in a lifetime, we need to start with our resting heart rate. For adults, a healthy resting heart rate falls between 60 and 100 beats per minute (BPM), with most falling between 55 and 85 BPM. In contrast, newborns have a much faster resting heart rate, between 70 and 190 BPM, to meet the energy demands of their rapidly growing bodies.
However, a resting heart rate that falls outside the normal range can be a warning sign for cardiologists. “We diagnose conditions based upon faster heart rate, when it becomes more than 100, or low heart rate, when it’s becoming lower than 60,” says Dr. Sengupta. As we age, our heart rate naturally slows down.
“That can affect how fast and how slow the heart goes,” explains Dr. Salvatore Savona, a specialist in cardiovascular disease. This slowing can be attributed to the natural wear and tear on our heart muscles, as well as the development of conditions like fibrosis, where excess tissue growth hinders the heart’s ability to beat, or abnormal heart rhythms like atrial fibrillation, the most common heart rhythm disorder.
Let’s take a typical individual with a resting heart rate of 70 BPM. That person would experience 100,800 heartbeats in a single day, adding up to approximately 36.8 million beats in a year. With the average life expectancy in the US at 77.5 years, that translates to roughly 2.85 billion heartbeats in a lifetime.
Is there a limit to the number of beats our heart can endure before it wears out? While aging affects all our organs, including our hearts, the way we care for our bodies can significantly impact the health and longevity of our hearts. Dr. Sengupta emphasizes the importance of reducing stress, prioritizing restful sleep, maintaining a healthy diet, and engaging in regular exercise to preserve the health of our hearts.
“These are questions we need to ask, about how we are responding to our body’s needs and are we taking care of ourselves,” he says. By taking care of ourselves, we can help our hearts continue to beat strong and healthy for as long as possible.
