Heart Health Check
A heart health check is essential for understanding your risk of heart disease and stroke. It helps identify early signs of potential issues like high blood pressure, cholesterol imbalances, or irregular heart rhythms. By assessing these factors, you can take proactive action before more serious conditions develop, ultimately giving you peace of mind and enabling you to live a longer, healthier life.
Bluecrest offers a Full Body Health Assessment that provides a comprehensive overview of your overall health. This includes a detailed private heart check, monitoring key risk factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure, and other vital markers to ensure you have a complete picture of your wellbeing.
How to check heart health
A heart health test offers valuable insights into your heart’s wellbeing and helps identify your risk for serious conditions such as coronary artery disease, arrhythmia, heart failure, and stroke. By understanding these risks early, you can take proactive steps to protect your heart and overall health.
A heart health check typically includes a range of tests, such as:
- Blood pressure measurements
- Stress tests
- Blood tests (levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, and other markers that can indicate heart disease risk.)
- Diagnostic imaging (e.g., echocardiogram)
- ECG (electrocardiogram)
- Chest X-ray (looking for enlargement or other abnormalities) These checks provide a comprehensive view of your heart’s health, ensuring you stay ahead of potential issues before they become more serious.
Why is it important to check your heart health?
Checking your heart health is vital if you want to live a long and active life. The heart is one of the most important organs in your body, and if it’s not functioning correctly, it can have a huge impact on your health.
Your heart is responsible for pumping nutrient and oxygen-rich blood around the body as well as carrying away carbon dioxide and waste products. But to do this, it is essential that the heart muscle is strong and healthy and that the connected arteries are free from obstruction and disease.
Having regular heart check ups can help you assess how well your heart is functioning and take any necessary steps to reduce risk factors that may put you at increased risk of having heart complications.
Who should consider having a heart health check?
An annual heart health check is recommended for anyone over the age of 40, but especially if you have:
- A family history of heart disease
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Diabetes
- A history of smoking
- A sedentary lifestyle
These factors can put you at a higher risk of heart conditions like heart disease or stroke.
What to expect from a heart health check?
A cardiovascular health check involves having a series of tests that assess how well your heart is functioning. Initially, this may involve common tests like a blood pressure check, a pulse check and some blood tests.
Depending on your results, your doctor may also recommend further tests, like an X-ray or a stress test, where your heart function is measured following exercise.
What types of tests are involved?
The most common types of tests used to check heart health include:
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Pulse check – this test counts the number of times your heart beats over 60 seconds. A normal resting heart rate is considered to be between 60 to 100 beats per minute, but this can vary from person to person.
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Blood pressure check – a blood pressure test assesses the pressure within your blood vessels as your heart contracts (the systolic pressure) as well as the pressure when it fills up with blood again (diastolic pressure). A healthy blood pressure reading is generally considered to be between 90/60 (diastolic) mmHg and 120/80 (Systolic) mmHg, although like with pulse rate, this can vary. Typically, fitter, more active people have lower readings.
Having high blood pressure can increase your risk of heart disease, strokes, heart attacks and vascular dementia.
- ECG – an ECG test, or echocardiogram, records your heart’s rate, rhythm and electrical activity, helping to identify abnormalities within your heart’s electrical signals, which could indicate a problem with your heart.
- Cholesterol test – a cholesterol test can help identify if you have high cholesterol. High cholesterol can put you at higher risk of having narrowed or blocked arteries, which can lead to heart disease and increase your risk of heart attacks and strokes.
- Heart disease and stroke risk score – your heart disease and stroke risk score is calculated based on a series of tests that assess your risk of developing a heart condition. This typically includes a blood pressure check, a peripheral artery disease (PAD) test and assessing your risk factors for metabolic disease, a group of risk factors including high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity, linked to increased risk of coronary heart disease.
Depending on the results of the above tests, you may be advised to have further tests to assess your heart health, including:
- Coronary Angiogram – this test uses a contrast dye to look out for obstructions in your coronary arteries, which may reduce blood flow to the heart. It highlights blood vessels that usually don’t show up on a standard X-ray.
- Echocardiogram – this test uses sound waves to check the heart and nearby blood vessels for defects, damage and blockages.
- Heart CT Scan - is an imaging test that checks the arteries supplying blood to the heart.
- Myocardial Perfusion Scan – a scan that uses a small amount of a radioactive chemical, which is usually injected into a vein, to evaluate the blood flow to the muscles of the heart. Poor blood flow may affect areas that do not absorb the radioactive chemical or radionuclide.
- B-type Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) - measures the levels of BNP protein in the blood. Natriuretic peptides help regulate circulation and widen blood vessels. If the heart struggles to pump enough blood around the body, more BNP is produced to compensate, so high levels can suggest heart failure.
- Stress test – similar to an ECG, this test involves tracking your heart while walking or running on a treadmill to see how your heart performs under stress.
How can you help boost your heart health?
The good news is that many of the factors that put you at increased risk of heart disease can be minimised by making simple lifestyle changes or taking preventative medications.
Lifestyle changes that can boost heart health
If you want to take a proactive approach to managing your heart health, you can try making simple changes to your lifestyle, such as:
- Following a heart healthy diet
- Exercising regularly
- Stopping smoking
- Reducing your alcohol intake
- Maintaining a healthy weight
- Reducing your salt intake
- Reducing your stress levels
- Getting enough sleep
- Doing activities that foster your mental health and wellbeing
Preventative medications for heart health
For some people, lifestyle changes alone are enough to reduce their risk of developing a heart condition. However, others need a little extra support from medications that help prevent heart disease, including:
- Blood thinning medications, like aspirin or anticoagulants
- Statins to help reduce your cholesterol levels and prevent heart disease
- Beta blockers, such as Atenolol, Bisoprolol and Metoprolol to help prevent heart attacks and improve heart function
- ACE inhibitors, which can lower blood pressure and improve heart function
Book a heart health check
If you are concerned about your risk of heart-related problems, having regular heart health checks can offer peace of mind and enable you to take steps to help minimise your risk.
As Bluecrest Wellness, our Private Health MOTs are one of the best ways to regularly monitor your heart health, as they include a comprehensive range of heart health checks. This includes a blood pressure check, ECG, PAD, cholesterol check and heart disease and stroke risk score. What’s more, all our health MOT packages come with a comprehensive Results Report and free access to a 24/7 GP helpline for a year for complete peace of mind following your health assessment.
With locations across the UK, our health MOTs can be booked at a time and location that’s convenient for you.
BOOK A PRIVATE HEALTH MOT TODAY
