Everyone knows the importance of maintaining a healthy heart. Apart from preparing nutritious food and daily exercise, vigilance is also an important aspect of the heart’s health. Keeping a close check on your heart health at home will go a long way. By doing this, it prevents mild diseases from turning into serious problems.
Although it’s important to see a doctor, what’s more important is to know when to book an appointment. Many people sometimes wait for their symptoms to be too uncomfortable to ignore. But the sooner a problem is identified with heart health, the better. The good news is that you can do a few easy daily hacks to check your heart health at home. You can see a problem this way long before it gets serious.
Here Are 5 Easy Daily Hacks To Check Your Heart Health At Home:
1. Measure Your Pulse
You’re going to feel your pulse and monitor your heart rate and rhythm. Each pulse matches a heartbeat that pumps blood into your arteries.
Finding out your heartbeat helps you judge the strength of the blood supply and blood pressure in various parts of the body. And it is the best way to check your heart health at home.
You can tell how fast your heart beats and whether it’s normal to feel your heartbeat. Your heart rhythm is the number of times the heart beats within 1 minute.
- To test your pulse at home
- Get a second-hand watch.
- Place the index finger and the middle finger of your hand on the other arm’s inner wrist just below the base of your thumb. You’re supposed to feel a tapping or pulsing against your fingertips.
- Count the number of taps that you feel in 10 seconds.
- Multiply the number by 6 to find the heart rate for 1 minute.
Here Is Another Way To Check Your Heart Rate:
Here’s how to do a heart rate test with your workout (only do these to the maximum exercise level you normally do, or if your doctor says you can do them). You will need a method to calculate the heart rate, such as a device integrated into the workout machine handles or a heart rate sensor that straps your wrist.
Maximum heart rate: After exercising as much as you can for three minutes, check your heart rate. how close is it to 80 or 90% of your age maximum? (Calculate the limit by subtracting your calendar age from 220: if you are 40 years old, the maximum heart rate should be about 180 beats per minute-80% would be 144; 90% would be 162).
2. Check Your Heart Age
Heart age is a way to understand the risk of heart failure or stroke. Your heart age is measured based on the risk factors for heart disease, such as:
- age,
- blood pressure
- cholesterol,
- diet,
- physical exercise,
- and smoke.
Younger age of the heart indicates a lower risk of heart disease.
You will need to know your body mass index (BMI) or your cholesterol level to measure your heart age.
If you’re like most Americans, your heart age is older than your age. Yet you can lower your heart age by taking a healthy lifestyle. To begin with, focus on making just one or two improvements.
You Can Also Help Reduce The Risk Factors for Your Heart Disease By:
- Quitting smoking if you are a smoker.
- At least 150 minutes of exercise per week
- Consuming healthy foods, including vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds, legumes, whole grains, and lean protein, mainly fish Limiting salt in your diet
- Keeping a healthy body weight
- Lowering your blood pressure
- Boost your cholesterol
- Controlling your blood pressure if you have diabetes
3. Monitor Your Breathing
Breathing shortness is one of the main signs of heart failure. Keep an eye on if you feel breathless after mild physical exercise. Most importantly, you can keep an eye on your breathing while you’re at rest. This is also a good way to check your heart health at home.
Only by breathing, you can have a healthier heart. In people suffering from angina, a temporary loss of blood supply to the heart. By this treatment immediately increases blood flow and alleviates these symptoms. However, patients with coronary heart disease may need medicine. You may have a healthy heart only by breathing through your nose.
Healthcare professionals claim that taking long, deep breaths from the nose helps release nitric oxide, a chemical that shows to:
- Expand the blood vessels;
- Increase the supply of blood
- Lower blood pressure;
- Reduce tension and produce an all-out calming effect.
- prevent the development of artery-clogging plaque
4. Check Your Blood Pressure
Blood pressure is the force of your blood against the walls of your vessels as your heart pumps it across your body. It is the easiest way to check your heart health at home.
Normal blood pressure for an adult, when you’re at rest, is less than 120 times less than 80. The systolic pressure is 120. There is a diastolic pressure of 79.
High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is a blood pressure reading of 130/80 or higher.
Years of high blood pressure will stiffen and shorten your artery walls, which block your heart’s flow of blood. It may lead to heart failure or a heart attack.
Your blood pressure can rise or decrease depending on your age, heart condition, emotions, exercise, and prescriptions. High reading doesn’t indicate you have high blood pressure. You need to try it at different times when you’re relaxing to find out your typical numbers.
5. Measuring Your Waist Size
Another way to check your heart’s health is to check your waist circumference. ” The size of the waist is the new stethoscope,” said Lori Mosca. It can estimate the risk of elevated blood pressure, high cholesterol, and cardiovascular disease.
Researchers Also Determined The Waist Size Limitations for The Risk Of Heart Disease:
- Men with a 35-inch waist and women with a 33-inch waist should not add additional weight to reduce heart disease risk.
- To reduce the risk of heart disease, men with a waist of at least 39 inches, and women with a waist of at least 37 inches can lose weight.
To measure your waist, wrap a tape measure around your middle right above your hipbones. Exhale, then check your number. In general, the risk increases when the waist size is more than 35 inches for women or 40 inches for men. (Note: if you are from South Asia, China, or Japan, the risk will increase if your waist is more than 31 inches if you are a woman or 35 inches for a man).
The Bottom Line
Other symptoms include:
- snoring,
- sleep apnea and other breathing problems while sleeping;
- swollen or bleeding gums;
- swollen or sore legs or knees;
- constriction or arching of the neck or shoulder;
- and shortness of breathing.
Remember that any home testing should never replace routine check-ups with your doctor. Doctors can run a battery of tests to get a picture of your heart’s fitness.
But some simple home tests will help you keep track of your heart’s health. And know when it’s time to see your doctor.
