How’s your heart health? Take this quick quiz to find out!

Are you taking the right steps to keep your heart safe and healthy for the long run, or is it in danger?

You’ll find out the answer to that question in just a moment with a quick, 60-second quiz.

Of course, a quick quiz can’t provide a comprehensive overview of your heart health. But it can clue you in on how to move forward with the right diagnostic testing so that you have an accurate picture of your overall heart health.

I’ll circle back to that in just a moment. But first, it’s time to get your quiz results…

Getting the risk factors (mostly) right

Recently, American Heart Association (AHA) scientists compiled a list of heart-health-related goals. If you can achieve all or some of these goals, they say, you’ll dramatically lower your risk of dying from a heart attack or a stroke.

Dr. Fred Pescatore includes these goals in the form of a quiz in his Ultimate Heart-Protection Protocol. He notes that he usually doesn’t see eye-to-eye with the AHA, but he agrees that they were (mostly) spot-on with these seven potential heart-risk factors.

As you’ll see, the questions are quite easy to answer, but it’s not easy to get a good score. In fact, in a recent study, only 1 percent of the people surveyed could answer yes to all of the questions. And only 1 in 7 participants were able to answer yes at least five times.

Even so, Dr. Pescatore considers five yes answers to be a realistic goal. So, are your pencils ready?

The 60-second heart health quiz

Answer “Yes” or “No” to the following 7 questions:

  1. Are you a non-smoker?
  2. Is your BMI (body mass index) less than 25? (Dr. Pescatore notes, “If you don’t know your BMI, just do a Google search for ‘BMI calculator.’ It will turn up dozens of sites that will do the math for you.”)
  3. Do you do some sort of physical activity on a regular basis?
  4. Do you eat a healthy diet, with no refined sugar or carbs and lots of lean meat, vegetables, and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs)?
  5. Is your blood pressure less than 120/80?
  6. Is your fasting blood sugar less than 100?
  7. Is your cholesterol less than 200? (Dr. Pescatore’s note: “This one isn’t as important as the AHA thinks it is, but I suppose we can humor them just this once.”)

“Now,” Dr. Pescatore continues, “tally up how many times you answered ‘Yes.’ This is your score. If you scored below a 5, take note of the questions you answered with ‘No.’ I encourage you to pay special attention to your areas of need.”

And of course, addressing those areas of need is exactly what Dr. Pescatore’s Ultimate Heart-Protection Protocol is designed to do.

As I mentioned earlier, consider this quiz to be more like a snapshot. For a true deep-dive into your heart health markers, more testing is required.

Three ways to gauge your heart’s inner workings

Dr. Pescatore’s protocol offers details on 10 different tests that he strongly recommends to monitor the factors that play a big role in keeping your ticker ticking. They range from simple blood tests to high-tech scans. But he highlights three in particular that he uses to monitor his own heart health.

  • Electrocardiogram, or EKG

An EKG is simple, painless, and usually takes less than 15 minutes. During an EKG, your doctor will attach electrodes to your arms, legs, and chest. The electrodes connect to a device that tracks your heart’s electrical activity. Dr. Pescatore says, “It shows how fast the heart is beating and its rhythm, so it can detect signs of heart damage. I recommend getting an EKG every year.”

  • Echocardiogram

This test uses sound waves to monitor blood flow, giving doctors a “view” of your heart’s size and shape, and an idea of how well heart valves are working. Dr. Pescatore recommends yearly echocardiograms.

  • Ultrafast computed tomography (CT)

The name of this test is accurate — it’s able to capture multiple images of your heart during a single heartbeat. This approach detects even small amounts of calcium buildup in the heart and coronary arteries. Dr. Pescatore notes that this level of minute detail picks up the earliest signs of heart disease. He recommends a CT scan once every five years.

For Dr. Pescatore, these tests are the big three that everyone needs. But he goes on to discuss seven additional tests that reveal the level of threats like inflammation, homocysteine, and other factors that chip away at heart health.

You can find all of those details in Dr. Pescatore’s Ultimate Heart-Protection Protocol along with insights and strategies designed to keep your heart in top running order. Click here to learn more about this potentially life-saving online learning tool.