1. Your heart is a muscular pump about the size of your fist

2. Your heart beats about 70 times every minute

3. The heart pumps about 5 litres of blood per minute—that’s about 180 million gallons during your lifetime

4. We all have blood pressure— the pressure is created by the constant pumping of blood by the heart and the size of the blood vessels through which the blood passes.

5. In a healthy young adult a normal blood pressure is around 120/80. (the higher figure refers to blood pressure during each heart beat and the lower figure to the blood pressure between beats)

6. The blood pressure and heart beat is raised temporarily by factors like exercise, excitement, anger or anxiety.

7. High blood pressure (hypertension) occurs when blood pressure rises to a level, which may cause a heart attack or stroke.