Is Your Heart Healthy? Top Diagnostic Tests & Lifestyle Tips to Protect Your Heart
Overview
As our world continues to become more advanced technologically as well as have higher living standards than before, the heart continues to exhibit signs of degradation. Numerous factors contribute to this decline; among these are high levels of stress, consumption of processed foods, lack of physical activity, etc.
Because of the unhealthy lifestyles that many people currently exhibit, their hearts are under an extreme amount of stress, and ultimately lead to heart disease and other forms of poor health.
Fortunately there are many ways individuals can adapt their lifestyles in order to keep their hearts healthy. In this blog we’ll share numerous tips that will assist in maintaining a person’s heart in optimal condition.
Why Are Routines Check-Ups Important To The Health Of Your Heart?
The heart is responsible for several services including moving blood from the veins to the arteries. A heart issue will cause problems in other areas of the body, therefore it is extremely important to have regular heart check-ups to prevent future heart issues from occurring.
Also blood cholesterol and blood pressure tests are very valuable in assessing your heart’s overall state, and therefore should be performed along with a routine physical examination of the heart.
There Are Some Tests For Heart
Diagnostic ultrasound (Echocardiogram): A diagnostic ultrasound using echoes to produce images of your heart. This test is commonly ordered by a physician to determine the heart’s ability to beat effectively and how well blood is flowing through the heart.
The Images generated from this test can help identify many types of structural and functional abnormalities of both the heart muscle and valves. The testing can be completed either while you are at rest or while performing an increased workload via exercise to elevate the heart rate (Exercise Stress Testing).
Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE): ultrasonographic sound waves of a high frequency are reflected back from structures affecting the flow of blood through the heart (such as chambers and valves) as well as those that take blood from and transport it back to the body.
The echo transducer (the device that converts the sound waves into an image) is attached to a flexible tube which is inserted through the mouth and gradually moved down the oesophagus (where it can generate images from a point above where the upper chambers of the heart are located).
Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG): records the electrical activity of the heart in order to determine (with a millisecond resolution) how much time it takes from one section to receive an electrical stimulus from another section of the body.
By measuring the delay involved in passing electrical signals through your heart, the physician will be able to tell if the rates at which electrical signals flow through your heart are normal, slow, rapid, or irregular.
Conclusion
An individual’s heart remains in its healthiest form through the very best possible ways to maintain a healthy body overall. Maintaining a healthy heart is accomplished through many different means including healthy eating habits, staying physically active through exercise, quitting smoking, and limiting the amount of alcohol consumed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Which Test Is Best To Detect Heart Problems?
No single test is considered “best” (doctors often combine), however the ECG (ECG/EKG) is usually the first step because it does not hurt and identifies electrical activity quickly.
Q. What 5 Lab Tests Are Ordered For Disorders Of The Heart?
Five main laboratory tests routinely requested for diagnosing and treating cardiovascular issues include Lipid Profile, Troponin Test, N-Terminal pro B-type Natriuretic Peptides (BNP/NT-proBNP), High Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-CRP), and Blood Glucose/HbA1c testing.
Q. What Is The Most Detailed Heart Test?
There is no single heart test considered to be the “most detailed,” each type of test provides different insights into the patient’s heart status. Coronary Angiography is the gold standard for evaluating the condition of arteries that have developed blockages.
Q. Which Test Can Confirm Heart Blockage?
The Coronary Angiogram does have significant limitations, due to the inability to image the arteries using CT or MRI. A CT coronary angiogram provides useful 3D imaging of plaques in the arteries, but as a less invasive procedure.
Q. What Is The Top 1 Test For The Heart?
Every heart test has its own advantages and disadvantages based on what kind of heart condition you may have; however, the Electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG) is generally accepted as the most frequently used test for evaluating the rhythm of your heart and for identifying heart attacks or electrical problems.
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