Heart Health Check: 4 Important Metrics to Track
Heart health often gets overlooked, especially among young adults with busy lifestyles. Tracking a few essential health metrics can help prevent long-term heart diseases. Monitoring blood pressure, resting heart rate, cholesterol and blood sugar levels gives a clear idea about heart function. These simple checks encourage better lifestyle choices and support healthier heart habits every day.
Heart Health
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For many people fitness or health only means weight loss or working out. But it is also important to remember about the health of the heart. With constantly changing and fast paced lifestyles, the risk of heart diseases are increasing even in younger people.
It has become very important to take care of the heart as well. There are a few metrics that help in figuring out whether the heart is normal and healthy or not.
Blood Pressure Levels
Cholesterol Levels
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
It has become very important to take care of the heart as well. There are a few metrics that help in figuring out whether the heart is normal and healthy or not.
Blood Pressure Levels
Blood Pressure
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- Problems related to blood pressure can be because of genetics, lifestyle, diet, obesity or underlying health conditions related to kidney or thyroid.
- High or low blood pressure can have a negative impact on overall health.
- A healthy blood pressure level for an adult is 120/80 mmHg.
Resting Heart Rate
- The number of times a person’s heart beats in a minute is called resting heart rate.
- For a healthy adult, the resting heart rate is 60 to 100 beats per minute.
- Heart rate can increase in various situations like when a person is excited, nervous, stressed or doing any physical activity.
- If a person’s heart rate is constantly high, it is not healthy.
Cholesterol Levels
Cholesterol
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- There are two types of cholesterol: LDL (bad cholesterol) and HDL (good cholesterol).
- LDL (bad cholesterol) can block arteries and prevent blood from smoothly flowing through them.
- HDL (good cholesterol) on the other hand helps in the blood to smoothly flow through the arteries.
- It is good for adults to get cholesterol checked at least once a year.
- Long term high sugar levels cause permanent damage to blood vessels and makes the heart weak.
- One of the biggest threats to heart disease is diabetes that can be avoided by regularly measuring sugar levels.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- What is the most important indicator of heart health?There isn’t just one single indicator, but blood pressure is often considered the most important. Consistently high blood pressure can strain the heart and increase the risk of heart disease. Along with this, doctors also look at other key markers like resting heart rate, cholesterol levels and blood sugar levels to understand overall heart health.
- What are the best tests to check heart health?The best tests to check heart health include blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar tests, along with heart-specific tests like ECG, echocardiogram and stress tests.
- Can you have high cholesterol but clear arteries?Yes, a person can have high cholesterol but still have clear arteries, especially if the high cholesterol is recent or if they have high levels of HDL (good cholesterol) that protect the arteries. However, over time, unmanaged high LDL can lead to plaque buildup, so regular monitoring is important.