I like to listen, whenever I can to the Sun FM radio programme called “What have you heard on the news today?”
It gives you a feel on issues affecting the people. There are two topics on this programme that have been prominent in the past few weeks. These are the Kwacha and load-shedding.
They say when the economy of China sneezes, then the rest of the world catches a cold. Well China seems to have got a cold, because the Kwacha has taken a battering, it staggered, tripped and went into free fall.
For the load-shedding the only good thing I have heard about Zesco lately is that they have a good football team.
It is probably their best public relations pitch. So when one gets the time to listen to the word on the streets, then you can feel the pulse of the nation. In much the same way your pulse is a quick and easy way to say something about a person’s health.
You, probably like everyone else,have never really paid much attention to it. You may have noticed though, that one of the first things a doctor does when he examines a patient, is touch his wrist while lifting up his hand. I am sure you may have wondered, what kind of medical ritual this might be. The pulse, which is the transmitted waves of  beats or impulses of the heart to the blood vessels, gives a quick impression of the state of health of a person. Very much like listening to a phone-in programme on a popular local radio station.
What is the pulse and how can it determine good health?
What features of the pulse may suggest illness?
What is a healthy pulse and how do I develop it?
1. What is the pulse and how can it determine good health?
When I was in university a couple of years back, people where embarrassed to tell you that they were in the School of Humanities studying Economics. It gained the unpopular nickname “Chikwakwa” (slasher).With this the stigma of being a low achievers’ course. Nowadays, though, I have been surprised how the tables have turned and everyone is claiming to be an economist.
Like these people the pulse is a proxy, or a representative. Since the heart cannot be easily evaluated without special equipment, the pulse is a good representative. The heart is basically a pump.
The Zesco generators at Kariba, turn mechanical water energy into electrical energy. The heart pump on the other hand, turns electrical energy from the brain nerves to mechanical energy which pumps blood around the body.
The mechanical contractions of the heart are transmitted along the pump lines, which are the blood vessels, and can therefore be felt whenever these blood vessels (in particular arteries) are near the skin surface. One very common site is the wrist. There are 3 things that the doctor feels for when assessing the pulse, these are the rate, the rhythm and response (more simply the nature).
These 3 parameters will tell you if something is wrong in the body as well as the heart. The rate means the speed at which the pulse runs.
This can be counted by holding the left wrist (the area where the hand meets the forearm), with your right hand. Grip the left wrist between the index finger and the thumb, the way your watch grips your wrist. If you do this in such a way that the pulp of the thumb rests on the base of the left thumb at the wrist, you will feel the beat of the pulse on the wrist. You can count the pulse rate by counting the number of pulse beats you get in one minute. This should normally be between 60 beats to 90 beats per minute.
The blood system is the police of the body, so when something is wrong in the body the blood has to run around in the body very fast. Much in the same why, that if there is a problem in any area of town, you will see police cars with sirens, moving very fast to that location.
So when the pulse goes beyond 100 beats per minutes, the blood is having to be shuttled around the body very fast and you know there is a problem in some part of the body.
The rhythm of the pulse, is more simply understood as the music created by the pulse.
The heart is made of two sets of pumps, the receiving pumps (these receive blood from the blood vessels, the veins) and the returning pump (this returns blood to the blood vessels, the arteries).
The receiving pump is called the Atrium, and the returning pump is the Ventricle. These make the rhythmic sound of two pumps or African drums, beating one after the other, a lub dub sound. Imagine one drum smaller than the other, so you have a softer beat, followed by a harder beat. When the electrical systems that control this musical beat is disturbed then this rhythm is lost. Finally the pulse has a certain response, character or more simply behavior, which can be felt. Just like you have children with differing behaviors, they will be those who are loud, while others are quiet and withdrawn. So too the pulse may be very quiet or faint that you can barely feel it, this occurs in a shutdown mode like sleep or relaxation, or it may be  loud and strong, this occurs in a situation of anxiety, like a quarrel with your spouse.
2. What features of the pulse may suggest illness?
When the Kwacha rate to the Dollar changes too quickly, everybody knows something is wrong in the economy.
In the same way, when the pulse changes in its rate, rhythm or behavior from the normal, then something is not right in the body. If the pulse is above 100 beats per minutes or below 60 beats per minute then the body is unwell.
The heart may go up when you are involved in physical activity or it make go down when you are at rest and relaxed.
So the best time to take the pulse is when you are at rest. So at rest the heart beat should not go above a 100 or below 60.
When this happens something is wrong. Diseases of the blood, the heart, infections and disease of the neck organ the thyroid can all may the pulse high. Low blood volume or cells (Anaemia) is one of the most common causes for a high pulse rate.
When a high pulse rateis accompanied by  fever, then the cause is likely to be an infection. The most common infection in Zambia which will cause fever is Malaria. Over activity of the Thyroid gland (Thyrotoxicosis) will causes a high pulse rate without any fever. A low pulse rate is usually due to Heart disease or low activity of the Thyroid gland (Myoxeodema).
Some professional athletes tend to have low pulse rate due to training, which improves the efficiency of extraction of oxygen from the blood, without the need to raise the pulse during exercise. Abnormalities of rhythm (Arrthymias) occur in the very young or the very old. In the young this is due to a not yet mature electrical system of the heart, in the elderly it is due to an ageing heart muscle.
In those in between some common causes are enlargement of the heart as a complication of hypertension (BP), diseases of the heart valves (Rheumatic Heart Disease) and diseases of the Thyroid gland. The behavior of the pulse is most often due to abnormalities of the heart valves. These valves allow blood to follow in one direction. When they are too tight or two loose they allow either back flow or inadequate outflow of blood from the heart, which disturbs the character of the pulse. Damage to the valves maybe in born or may occur due to diseases of the valves in childhood, such as Rheumatic Heart disease (This is especially common in Africa)
3. What is a healthy pulse and how can I develop it?
A good resting pulse of between 60 to 70 beats per minute is a sign of good health and suggests the likelihood of a long life. There are a number of things that will help you keep this good healthy resting pulse. These are managing stress, getting adequate sleep, stop smoking, eat healthy and exercise frequently. Stress is inevitable in our ever changing circumstances of life, so it cannot be avoided. However poorly managed stress is one of the manager threats to our wellbeing.
The secret to managing stress is developing an attitude of optimism towards life.
The feeling that things will work out fine in the end. Learn to relax, take your leave and take your holidays.
Remember life is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Get sufficient rest, a minimum of 6 to 8 hours of sleep per day helps to recover your body sufficiently for the next day. Over work anxiety and sleep deprivation increase ageing of the body.
Eat natural and eat healthy. This keeps the blood vessels clean and prevents them getting clogged up.
Make sure you eat foods rich in iodine, this is important in keeping the Thyroid gland healthy.
These include yoghurt, green beans, strawberries, bananas and sea foods.
Do 30  minutes of exercises every day, that will push your heart rate above 100/min. Rapid walking is a good low cost exercise. Smoking damages blood vessels and overworks the heart.
Stopping to smoke will improve your resting pulse rate and the health of your heart.