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Who's Who and How to Talk About the Heart

Who cardiologists are, how they work alongside cardiac surgeons and other specialists, and a starter vocabulary so the rest of cardiology stops sounding like a foreign language.

Who looks after the heart

A cardiologist is a physician — a medicine doctor — who diagnoses and treats heart and vessel disease without opening the chest. They prescribe medicines, read tests, and perform procedures through thin tubes threaded inside blood vessels. Importantly, a cardiologist is not a surgeon. When the heart needs an actual operation, that is the work of a cardiac surgeon (cardiothoracic surgeon), a separate specialty.

Cardiology itself branches into sub-fields. Some cardiologists focus on the wiring (electrophysiologists, who treat rhythm problems), some on the plumbing (interventional cardiologists, who open blocked arteries), some on the pump (heart-failure specialists), and some on imaging. They also work closely with anesthetists, intensive-care doctors, radiologists, and primary-care doctors who manage everyday heart risk.

The everyday vocabulary

A handful of words come up in almost every heart conversation. Knowing them turns the rest of cardiology from a wall of jargon into something readable.

  1. Heart rate — how many times the heart beats per minute. A resting adult is usually around 60–100.
  2. Vital signs — the basic numbers checked at any visit: heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, temperature, and oxygen level.
  3. Electrocardiogram (ECG) — a painless tracing of the heart's electrical activity, the single most common heart test.
  4. Echocardiography — an ultrasound scan that shows the heart moving, beating, and pumping in real time.

Reading a heart rate yourself

You don't need a clinic to measure one real vital sign. Counting your own heart rate from your pulse is a small, honest piece of cardiology you can do right now — and it shows how a raw count becomes a clinical number.

Measuring your resting heart rate

Step 1. Sit quietly for a minute. Rest matters — a brisk walk
        can add 20-30 beats per minute.

Step 2. Place two fingers (not the thumb) on the thumb-side of
        your wrist, or on the side of your neck. Press gently
        until you feel the pulse.

Step 3. Count the beats for 30 seconds.
        Example: you count 38 beats.

Step 4. Multiply by 2 to get beats per minute (bpm):
        38 × 2 = 76 bpm

Reading it:
  ~60-100 bpm at rest  → typical adult range
  below 60 (bradycardia) → can be normal in fit, active people,
                           but is also checked when symptoms occur
  above 100 (tachycardia)→ normal with exercise/stress/fever,
                           noted if it persists at rest

These are general reference bands for orientation, not a diagnosis.
What is normal for one person may not be for another.
From a 30-second count to a heart rate in beats per minute.

That is the whole arc of this track in one gesture: a pump beats, plumbing carries the wave, you feel it as a pulse, and a simple count becomes a vital sign that a cardiologist can interpret. From here, the rest of cardiology is detail layered onto a picture you already understand.