Heart rate/ Pulse

[karenvictoria]

Can someone explain to me what the difference is between your heart rate and your pulse? I know what they are but what I'm asking is how does it relate to ones health. For instance my heart rate can be at max when working out and then return to like 117 in 5 minutes or so . Same with my pulse. Resting it is usually like 64. How is this related to your blood pressure. Is it ture the better your pulse the better your blood pressure. It's just very confusing to me at this point. I have done a search on web md but I would like to know how they relate to one another.
karen

www.picturetrail.com/karenvictoria

 

[Miss Lee]

Karen, basically, your heart rate and pulse are the same thing. When your heart muscle contracts, blood is pumped out of the left ventricle into your arteries. The force of this contraction is the pulse you can feel in your wrist or neck.

Blood pressure reflects the force of your blood as it pushes against your arteries. Blood pressure is given in 2 numbers. The top number, or systolic pressure, occurs when your heart is pumping the blood. The lower number, or diastolic pressure, is your heart at rest, or between pumps.


HTH

 

[karenvictoria]

Thanks Michelle for the info. So is it safe to say that if you have a good heart rate or pulse than your blood pressure would be relatively good.
karen

www.picturetrail.com/karenvictoria

 

[Miss Lee]

Well, not necessarily. You can have a normal pulse (heart rate) and a bad blood pressure. Your pulse represents the number of times your heart beats and your blood pressure represents the force exerted on your arteries when your heart is beating.

If you're talking about what happens to your pulse and BP when you exercise, it's safe to say that both your pulse and the top number of your BP (systolic pressure) would increase with aerobic exercise.

There's a lot of medical people on the boards. Maybe someone else can jump in here with a better explanation.