You can feel your pulse in your wrist because arteries close to the skin's surface expand and contract as your heart pumps blood through your body.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
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Heart's Pumping Action: Your heart acts as a pump, rhythmically contracting and relaxing to circulate blood throughout your entire body. This creates pressure waves in the blood.
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Arteries and Blood Flow: The blood is carried away from the heart through vessels called arteries. These arteries have elastic walls that can stretch and recoil.
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Feeling the Pulse: When the heart contracts (beats), it forces a surge of blood into the arteries. This surge causes the artery walls to expand. When the heart relaxes, the pressure decreases, and the artery walls recoil. You can feel this rhythmic expansion and contraction – that's your pulse.
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Location Matters: The pulse is most easily felt in areas where arteries are close to the skin surface and pass over a bone. The wrist is a prime example because the radial artery runs along the radius bone. Other common locations include the neck (carotid artery) and the upper arm (brachial artery).
In Summary: The pulse you feel in your wrist is a direct result of the rhythmic pumping of your heart, sending waves of pressure through your arteries. The artery's proximity to the skin and a bone in your wrist allows you to easily detect these pressure waves.
