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6 Fascinating New Facts about Your Heart
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4. Space Science and Your Heart
Ok, I doubt anyone reading this is an astronaut but this is a truly interesting piece of information. As you know, astronauts need to be in tip top shape to put up with the strains of living up in the sky. However, scientific studies of astronauts have shown that their heart doesn’t do so well after long periods in space.
The study followed 12 astronauts. The results showed that, when in space, the heart actually become more of a spherical shape by almost 10 percent. This, along with the loss in bone density and muscle, shows that a long space mission, such as one to Mars or for extended periods on the space station, would definitely be a dangerous mission in so far as health concerns go.
Since the heart doesn’t work as hard in space you would think that would be a good thing, but it’s quite the opposite. The heart actually loses muscle mass in space, which is not a good thing.
5. Pollution Hurts Not Just Your Lungs
Everyone knows that air pollution is bad for your lungs, but it’s now known that it’s also bad for your heart, even at very low levels. Research conducted at the Heart Institute of the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles shows that when you inhale polluted air, it can cause inflammation in your lungs which creates a gush of harmful effects in the entire cardiovascular system.
Hearts that are exposed to pollution are at a higher risk for arrhythmias also.
See also top 10 causes for death in the USA.
6. Can You Die of a Broken Heart?
Yes, actually you can.
Hearts can, literally, break. When you experience intense and overwhelming feelings such as when you lose a loved one, or you go through a divorce, sometimes the shock, pain, and stress can bring on a heart attack, even when someone is in overall good health. In a recent study of over 2,000 heart attack survivors it was found that attacks were much more likely to happen soon after the death of a loved one than at any other time.
As grief subsides, so does the risk. All those love songs appear to have some truth to them after all.
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