Pulse rate and heart rate are they the same?

Have you ever been at the doctor’s office, nervously awaiting your check-up, when the nurse wraps that dreaded cuff around your arm? As it starts to inflate, you can feel your heart rate quicken. But then, they begin taking your pulse from your wrist – wait a minute… what’s going on here? Aren’t pulse rate and heart rate the same thing? Well my friend, get ready for an education in all things cardiovascular.

Understanding the Heart

Before we dive into pulse rates and heart rates, let’s first talk about this vital organ pumping away in our chest like a little drummer boy playing his drum. The heart is responsible for moving blood throughout our body- delivering oxygen to organs where it is needed most. There are four chambers of our heart that work together; two atria (upper chamber) and two ventricles (lower chamber).

It’s All About Circulation

The way our circulatory system works is pretty amazing! Oxygen-rich blood comes back to the left side of our heart after circulating through different parts of our body while de-oxygenated blood returns to the right side of our hearts before getting sent off again for more oxygen.

It’s kind of like musical chairs – but with cells desperately vying for access to precious oxygen molecules rather than overly competitive children circling around seats intended for fanny-balancing.

Let’s Talk About Heart Rate

Now we have talked about circulation and understood why it’s important. Isolate yourself on a quiet spot because I am giving you some very valuable information now. Heartbeat or Heart rate refers exactly as its name suggests—it gives us an indicator about how fast or slow everything in this complicated network inside us functions ‘behold!’

What Exactly Is “Beats Per Minute?”

Scientifically speaking, “Heart rate” is defined by the number of times a person’s heart contracts in 60 seconds. “Beats per minute” is another way to express it because who doesn’t appreciate a little variation? Each time cells of our body call out for more oxygen, our heart needs to beat faster to keep up with the demand.

Fun Fact: A human fetus can have a heart rate that ranges from 100 -160 BPM. It’s like having your own personal DJ spinning only custom mixes just for you.

Triggers Can Raise or Lower Heart Rate

There are lots of things that could affect someone’s heart rate or cause fluctuations in rhythm throughout any given day:

  • Exercise(the obvious one)
  • Elevation
  • Emotional responses (like receiving bad news)
  • Hormonal imbalances (it happens!)

But What About Pulse?

Ok, let me be honest here. I am sorry! Even though pulse rate technically refers to your heartbeat as well…there are differences between how we talk about and measure each.

Pulse may provide information about heart health too but focuses on the felt sensation at crucial points elsewhere than the chest where arteries pass very near the surface: most commonly taking it at wrist radial artery , neck carotid artery, located next door(beside)of wind pipe larynx.Therefore we also consider other factors such as wave amplitude and contour amongst others which will be discussed under table below…

Image

Do We Need To Measure Pulse Rate?

You may come to think “WHO CARES” but don’t forget that medical professionals ask for pulse rate because it provides an insight on cardiac output(cardiac–related to heart; output–discharge).Cardiac output means total amount of blood the left ventricle of the heart pumps every minute.For instance, patients with irregular beats or a slowing down of circulation can have devastating health consequences.

Some other common reasons someone would need their pulse measured are:

  • Assessing how well medication is working
  • Getting baseline information — especially when dealing with chronic conditions
  • Checking overall cardiovascular function in exercise physiology researcher studies

The Main Difference between Heart Rate and Pulse

Want more bad news? (yes? no?) I am giving you anyways. There is absolutely NO difference between these two phenomena as regards what they measure—that being some aspect related to our hearts.Thus, at one level we could say pulse rate talks about the feeling while heart rate measures more quantitatively by tools such as electrocardiograph(ECG), among others.

Note – Interesting differences emerge though if specific factors affecting/involved/influencing both rates like pressure changes or valves damage which will be featured below;

Well done! Who made it here without visually stressing out and getting anxious immediately gets… a high-five!

What Makes Them Different?

Though technically similar aspects considered differently from different points( i.e.anatomy vs feeling) ,targeted location/modes could give rise to possible variations:

Category Heart Rate Pulse
Location directly from chest readings e.g ECG commonly taken at critical locations such wrist radial(carotid) artery etc around body
Feedback Type measured quantitatively through voltmeter(s)or_electronically(e.g FitBit)_and can_find patterns if examined appropriately felt feeling or sensation at strategic locations mentioned earlier
Wave Amplitude/contour (Aortic Pressure) Highest -changes in intrathoracic pressure during breath causing a change,_mitral/tricuspid valve prolapse. lower compared to HR-affected by variables involved such as EDP due to compliance properties of arterial wall ,shunts and sudden strikes

Which is Better for Measuring My Cardiovascular Health?

Neither… just kidding! The answer absolutely depends on context, so one could not say which measurement is ‘better’ than the other as regards discovering more about cardiac activity overall.

Heart rate might be preferable when studying athletic performance since breath irregularities have lessened impact than nonexistence variability helps prevents heart failure from long term changes.

Pulse rate could potentially lead clinicians towards where veins are larger hence reach deeper into body tissues leading to clot formation or thrombus also called DVT (deep venous thrombosis)—an embolism by breakage passing through vessels until it reaches smaller ones next door but then making its way up eventually becoming fatal

Interesting anecdote: There was an interesting study that determined Yoga students who had practices where they encouraged direct awareness of their pulse reported having significantly better resting vital signs overall!

Conclusion

Ultimately we have concluded that pulses and heartbeats are two sides of the same coin – both providing valuable insight into our cardiovascular health.We’ve talked and swapped stories about different factors affecting their outcomes like wave amplitude / contour,aortic pressure,valves abnormalities etc so you know things.

Whether we rely on getting readings manually felt at critical locations on our bodies, electrodes measuring waves using electronical devices or directly visualizing them off the chest… no matter what method suits us best, monitoring things like average beats per minute means being proactive enough with managing important aspects of cardiac health down the road.

Random Posts