What Your Pulse Rate Says About You?

Your pulse rate is a count of your heart that can be felt all over your body. It is a misconception that you can feel the pulse only on the wrists, you can feel it around the neck and even on your arms. A pulse rate that is too fast or too weak indicates that something is wrong with you. It is one of the vital signs of being alive. In fact, when we have to determine whether someone is dead or alive, we usually check for the pulse.

What is the normal pulse rate that people should have?

The normal pulse rate of a healthy adult is 72 beats per minute. But it will vary according to your gender, profession and lifestyle. If you are an athlete or someone who does strenuous physical activity then your pulse will count 50 to 60 counts in a minute. Infants have a pulse rate as high as 100 to 160 beats per minute. It slowly reduces to 100 to 120 for toddlers and eventually slows down to 70 to 80 for adults. Your pulse rate increases naturally after eating food, exercising and lovemaking.

If your pulse rate is abnormally high, then it could have the following reasons.

Obesity: Being overweight is one of the biggest causes of high blood pressure because your fat deposits put more pressure on the heart. This results in faster heart rate which makes you grasp for breath uncomfortably. It could have fatal results like high blood pressure leading to cardiac arrests.

Pregnancy: When a woman is pregnant, her heart rate shoots up to a 150 beats per minute. In the olden days when there were no conclusive pregnancy tests, midwives would feel the pulse of a lady to declare that she is pregnant. The quantity of blood in the body increases during pregnancy and thus, the heart has to work harder to keep the whole body well circulated. This is absolutely normal but you need to watch your blood pressure during pregnancy.

Tachycardia: This is a condition in which you have palpitations. In other words, you can hear your own heart or pulse beat rapidly. This usually happens when you have very high levels of stress. Lack of sleep can also induce tachycardia. It is common among 60 plus adults but even young people face this problem nowadays.

Smoking: If you are prone to high blood pressure then the doctor tells you to quit smoking immediately. This is because nicotine and tobacco spike your heart rate tremendously. Sometimes your blood pressure can remain normal while your pulse rate climbs really high.

Feel your pulse correctly to draw any of these conclusions. Do you know how to feel the pulse correctly?