Irrespective of your age, gender, height, and weight, you have to check if you are prone to any heart disease. Today’s generation lifestyle and diet aspects are proportional to getting heart disease risk factors. And saying that, you can actually find out and measure cardiovascular health all by yourself, using these 5 simple methods. Here are a few recommendations from the ‘American Heart Association’ on how to know if your heart is weak or not.

The 5 Risk Factors for Heart Disease

With these 5 straightforward tests, you can analyze the signs of your heart is healthy or what and can be taken preventive or corrective measures against the same;

• Blood Pressure:

A predominantly high stroke and heart attack risk are found through your blood pressure if it is alarmingly high. The only concern here is high BP cannot be easily detected, as there are no plausible symptoms visible for the same.

So, if you already have high blood pressure, then you should go for regular consultations and checkups. And if your range lies near 120/80 mm Hg, then it is normal. However, still, ensure to keep a track of your BP at least once or twice a year, if you are more than 20 years old.

• Fasting Lipoprotein Profile:

Again, if you are above 20 years, then you should take up the fasting lipoprotein profile every 5 years ( if you have high cholesterol then atleast once in a year). These tests the cholesterol and triglycerides of your body; you will be tested in a multifaceted level, to analyze and get clinical data on aspects such as total cholesterol, LDL (bad) cholesterol, HDL (good) cholesterol and triglycerides.

But if you are already prone to any heart problem or stroke, then make sure you test for the fasting lipoprotein profile at quite often intervals. With proper medication and a good lifestyle modification, these factors can be greatly controlled.

• Body Weight:

During any random medical checkup or cardiologist consultation online, you would be asked to measure your waist circumference or body weight, so as to get an accurate measure of your Body Mass Index (BMI). This value can be easily obtained with the mass and height of your body. Your body weight will speak volume in terms of letting the physician know whether your health is fit or unsound.

Accounting globally, so many adults are at the risk of developing serious cardiac issues because of their pre-existing conditions of obesity and overweight. Having a high body mass index can denote issues pertaining to heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes and many other health problems. So, get regular exercise and stay active all day as much as possible. 

• Blood Glucose:

You should get your blood glucose levels tested at least once in a year if you are more than 45 years of age. A high blood glucose level is the indicator for various grave diseases including pre-diabetes, Type II diabetes, insulin resistance, and related health concerns.

What’s more serious to note here is that if you don’t mind your bodily symptoms, then chances are likely that your conditions can turn irreversible.

• Smoking, Physical Activity, Diet:

Smoking is one of the primary risk factors for cardiac problems and is also a serious casual factor for causing premature death, as per the records in the United States of America. It is proven that smoking along with an improper pattern of physical activity can trigger serious weight, lungs, and heart problems.

Additionally, your diet should be optimally balanced. In general, avoid consuming excess sugar in your diet cycle.

Note that if you wish to quit smoking, then please contact any best cardiologist in Bangalore. He or she might help you get out of this phase using behavioral changes and other simple psychological techniques.

Conclusion

From checking your blood glucose level and maintaining a balanced diet to analyzing your blood pressure and quitting smoking, you can indeed have good heart health and check it at times necessary. With the results from these tests, you may try to increase or decrease any of your health factors, depending primarily on your physician’s diet and lifestyle recommendations.