In A HeartBeat

How Many?

There is a wive’s tale, or might it be a fact?, that every living, breathing being, has approximately the same number of heartbeats in a lifetime.

A hummingbird’s heart beats up to 1200 times per minute, when at work, which it is for virtually all of its waking hours. The average lifespan of a hummingbird is 4 years.

A human heart beats 60-100 beats per minute, depending on health and activity. That’s 2.5 billion in 70 years.

In 2022, the average lifespan (in the USA) was 80.2 years for females, and 80.2 years for males. You can do the math (if you have a super calculator) to see if they have about the same number of beats per lifetime.

As I stood as still as I could, slowing my heart as much as I could, hoping to get this photo, I marveled at what seemed to me to be the incredible amount of energy the hummingbird spends extracting minute amounts of pollen from innumerable blossoms.

I often reflected on the lifespans of people in Vermont. They seem to vary from very brief (55-65?) to unusually long (85-100?). Though I have no way of knowing their habits – alcohol or drugs, diet, sleep – I had some sense that many of those who worked extraordinarily hard, physically, like Bummy, our beloved caretaker, die younger than people like me whose physical lives are easier.

Did they spend their allotted heartbeats sooner, faster? On the all-to-rare occasions when I have done hard, physical labor, my heart rate was undeniably higher. At this moment, sitting at a keyboard, not so fast.

Of course I’ve been told to get up from my chair every few minutes, for the sake of my back, and maybe move around enough to encourage my heart muscle not to atrophy.

I wonder, if I had to work as hard as that hummingbird, just to sustain myself, if I could have lived this long?