Over the course of your life so far, you were most likely familiar with the heart because of its beating. Perhaps you heard your heartbeat through a stethoscope or listened to someone else's heartbeat. Or maybe you put two fingers to your wrist or neck to feel your pulse. Your pulse is your heartbeat sensed in your arteries (blood vessels that help carry blood to all parts of your body).
Your heartbeat is the relaxing and contracting of sections, or chambers, of your heart called the atria and ventricles. This process is stimulated by electrical impulses that travel through your heart and regulate your heartbeat. The electrical impulse begins in the top of the right atrium and travels through the muscles of both atria. The atria contract in response. The electrical impulse is then picked up by a node between the atria and the ventricles and passed to fibers in what is called the His-Purkinje system. The ventricles fill with blood from the atria before the electrical impulse causes them to contract. Once the ventricles do contract, they force the blood out of the heart and to the lungs and body.
The timing of the flow of blood through the heart is key for good health. When you listen to a heartbeat, you are hearing the sound of your heart carrying out its critical work.
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