Have you got your finger on your pulse?

Health trainers in Wakefield have been encouraging people across the district to know what their pulse rate and rhythms are, as part of the Arrhythmia Alliance’s ‘Know Your Pulse’ campaign and World Heart Rhythm Week (6 – 12 June 2011).

Checking your pulse should be as routine as managing your weight as knowing your pulse can help detect irregular or abnormal heart rhythms. Irregularities in pulse rate, in some cases are a contributing factor to stroke and are often left unchecked.

The health trainers, who work for the Trust, were helping people they came into contact with during Heart Rhythm Week to know how to check their pulse and understand what’s normal and what isn’t.

A normal pulse is between 60 -100 beats per minute and can be checked on your wrist. However, there are typical reasons why your pulse may be slower or faster and not all changes in pulse rate mean that something’s wrong and there may be a simple explanation.

Advice and guidance is available from your GP, practice nurse or from the Arrhythmia Alliance. You can also download a free pulse check guide and a free iPhone app from this website – both useful tools to help you ‘Know Your Pulse’