Your heart is the engine for your entire body, providing every cell in every tissue with the nutrients they need to live and thrive. However, your heart is susceptible to harm in many forms, especially disease. Some harmful things occur due to uncontrollable factors, such as genetic disorders, while others come from the things you choose to introduce to your body, such as food or drugs. All these factors influence the overall health of your heart. How healthy your heart is can be seen through a series of medical tests or procedures.
Step 1
Apply a blood pressure cuff to the arm to measure your blood pressure. Your blood pressure measures how much force your blood is placing on the walls of your blood vessels. High blood pressure can contribute to serious heart problems, including heart disease. Blood pressure is divided into two numbers--systolic, which is the top number and represents the pressure on your vessels when the heart beats, and diastolic, which is the bottom number and represents the pressure between heart beats. The American Heart Association defines a healthy blood pressure as being less than 120 systolic over 80 diastolic.
Step 2
Get an echocardiogram of your heart. An echocardiogram uses high frequency sound waves to produce a moving picture of your heart. This allows the doctor to look for abnormalities, such as enlarged or deformed structures that denote a problem with the heart. An echocardiogram may also use a doppler probe, which works by evaluating the motion of the blood through your heart, states the National Institute of Health. This allows the doctor to evaluate valve health, as well as look for blocks in the arteries.
Step 3
Draw your blood and test the sample for low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels, as well as triglycerides. When you consume food containing fats, the cholesterol from those fats eventually makes its way into your blood. Too much of LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, can build up in the blood vessels and calcify into plaque, which blocks your blood flow and contributes to disease. Triglycerides contribute to high cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol, or "good" cholesterol works to pull LDL cholesterol out of your bloodstream, improving your cholesterol numbers. A healthy heart will have an optimal LDL cholesterol level of less than 100 mg/dL, an HDL cholesterol level greater than 60 mg/dL, and a triglyceride level of less than less than 100 mg/dL, states the American Heart Association.
Things You'll Need
- Blood pressure cuff
