• Question: Why do we have a pulse?

    Asked by PHMK123 to Dan, Jennifer, Luke, Martin, sakshisharda on 15 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Martin Lindley

      Martin Lindley answered on 15 Mar 2018:

      the pulse is just the pressure the blood being pumped out the heart and around the body.

      you can feel it in several different parts of the body but usually we use the inside of the wrist

      you also have a pulse in your thumb (who knew) so we never use the thumb to check a pulse 🙂

    • Photo: Dan Gordon

      Dan Gordon answered on 15 Mar 2018:

      The pulse is the pressure of blood per beat of the heart. SO what you are feeling is the blood pushing through the arteries of the body. Each time the heart pushes blood out there is an increase in pressure which is what you feel.

    • Photo: Jennifer Paxton

      Jennifer Paxton answered on 15 Mar 2018:

      Like Martin and Dan have said, the pulse is the pressure of the blood pushing through your blood vessels with every beat of your heart. With every beat, your heart pushes out about 60-80ml of blood and this goes into your arteries to reach the tissues and organs all over your body. The two most common places to feel your pulse are in the neck (carotid artery) or your wrist (radial artery) but you can also feel in other places such the back of the knee (popliteal artery), thigh/groin (femoral artery), top of your feet (dorsals pedis) and the side of your face, just between your eyes and your ears (temporal artery). it’s a lot easier to feel your pulse if you have been exercising to have a run around and then see where you can feel your pulse in the places i’ve mentioned!

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