Title: The heartbeat
Course: Non-Communicable Diseases, Emergency Care and Mental Health Part 1 - Ethiopia (Full)

The heartbeat

What is a heartbeat? In the previous section we have been using the terms pumping, beating and contracting of the heart. You have learnt also that the heart is a muscular organ which beats all the time in our life. If you want to hear how your own heart beats you could use your stethoscope, or place your ear against the left side of someone else's chest around the nipple on the left side in men and under the left breast in women. The heart has got a special property to beat in a coordinated manner, and a normal heart beats between 60-80 beats per minute.