Helping a friend find her radial pulse over the phone was not really ideal, let alone count her pulse rate per minute. But in some situations, it might just help. Have anyone heard of somebody asking for a doctor or a nurse when someone isn't feeling well? The tendency is that, people will go near to lend a hand, but might not have a clue on what to do. A body collapsing might warrant anyone nearby to check a neck pulse, but what if a person is conscious?

Wrist pulses

You check the wrist and find the pulse, very easy. Just let the palm face upward and at the bottom of the thumb, past the wrist, your pulse is there. Yap, that's your PULSE POINT. Use your 2 or 3 fingers to find the pulsation.Did you find it? It's where granny usually put a touch of perfume every morning.  It's not that hard to miss. Once you get that, get a watch and follow that second pointer for a whole minute, that is the heart rate.

Count the rate for a complete minute

Normally, a heart rate (HR) is 60-100 beat per minutes (bpm), with the exception of the the athletes. Their HR are much slower. About 40 beats perhaps and higher, although we have had a patient walking around the ward with a HR of 30, but only in special cases. Most patients will collapse with this rate, needing an emergency management.

If a HR is higher than 100 bpm, some patients will not be compromise, unless it's a deadly rate where a patient can be symptomatic, this about 120bpm and higher, and this entails another emergency measures. A normal blood pressure (BP), breathing and no lightheadedness might not warrant an emergency.

A little too low, a little too high that can lead to lightheadedness or fainting

The brain needs OXYGEN, and our blood carries them there and to other important body organs where they are needed... The brain is very sensitive to it's responses, whether there's a lot of it, or the lack of it. A lot of it will tell our brain to stop breathing. But today, we will focus on the lack of it. 

Obviously, a low HR will result in less oxygen reaching the brain. How about when the heart is contracting so fast? A heart needs to relax after each contraction. And when it does, it's that time to fill the left ventricle with oxygenated blood from the lungs and deoxygenated blood from all over the body to the heart then to the lungs. Where they get oxygenated.

The issue here is the oxygenated blood from the lungs.

Where the oxygen are. While the heart relaxes, it is receiving blood, it is getting filled, in preparation for the next heart beat. That's what it does. In each contraction, the heart pumps blood to all parts of the body, and in each relaxation, it is receiving blood from the lungs. It's the size of a fist yet very powerful, it's the powerhouse of the body. Unable to do this function is where problems arise. But that's another issue. 

When the heart is beating so low, there's not enough blood being pumped to sustain a life. If the heart is beating so fast, there's not enough blood in the left ventricle to be pumped out. The main management is to treat it to normalise the heart rate, by means of medicines or through mechanical measures.

Patients become symptomatic at some point if these rates are not normal for them. And one of the symptoms is lightheadedness or fainting.

Unless a person got a very low blood sugar or any other reason, then feed him. A glucose gel under the tongue usually do the trick. This is for a conscious person. If unconscious and you can't feel a pulse on the neck, start CPR. You know, compressions in the middle of the chest about 5-6 cm depths for an adult, about 2 inches. Don't worry, a reviving person will just push you away anyway.

Here's a link on how to do CPR: