Imagine this: you decide to take your regular health check for the year, when, out of nowhere, your cardiologist suddenly recommends that you get your heart checked. This can be quite worrying, since the doctor recommending the test can’t be good news, right?
Well, yes and no. The thing most people don’t really know about the heart is that its problems don’t show up for a very long time. In fact, people can go their entire lives thinking that their hearts are completely fine when, in reality, the problems keep brewing under the surface. Then, all of a sudden, they find themselves struggling with things like chest pain, shortness of breath, and dizziness.
Think about it: The most serious heart conditions out there all develop stealthily for years before they ever cause any noticeable symptoms. So if you ever find yourself wondering why your heart specialists are suddenly calling for an investigation, read on as we explore what they are actually looking for and why it is important to find any problem as soon as possible.
Why is “feeling healthy” not an indicator of heart health?
The biggest misconception that people have about heart disease is that its symptoms arrive as soon as there is a problem with it, but that’s not quite the case. Take high blood pressure, for example. Frequently called the “silent killer” by doctors, it tends to damage our blood vessels and increase the risk of heart attack or stroke without ever producing any noticeable symptoms. In a similar vein, high cholesterol also damages our arteries and increases the risk of heart disease as we grow older. Even coronary artery disease progresses quietly until it’s too late. The point being, many people only discover that they have a problem after years of their heart already struggling with some issue. Even if you feel healthy in the present moment, that doesn’t mean your heart is healthy. This is why cardiologists avoid relying solely on how you feel when assessing your heart health and instead just get a heart check.
What risk factors control your heart health?
When a cardiologist takes a look at your heart, there are certain things that they place a particular focus on: your age, blood pressure, cholesterol level, diabetes, history of smoking, current weight, family history of heart disease, and even your ethnicity. All of these can influence how much you are at risk of cardiovascular disease.
You may not know this, but if you carry multiple risk factors, even if you feel well, your chances of developing heart problems will be significantly higher than those without these factors. For example, somebody with a strong family history of heart disease may have inherited risk factors that are impossible to detect based on how they feel. Likewise, someone with diabetes may experience damage to blood vessels long before any warning signs ever appear. If you were recommended a private heart check after your cardiologist reviewed your medical history, this may be the reason why. It’s not that they are actively looking for some disease at the moment. Instead, it’s a simple case of them trying to understand whether your heart is heading in the right direction and won’t develop any problems later in your life.
What should you expect during a heart check?
When you first walk in for a heart checkup, you might have to take several different tests depending on your age, medical history, and overall risk assessment. That said, most of us start at the same point with basic tests such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar measurements, and a review of personal and family medical history. In some cases, your doctor may also recommend an ECG (electrocardiogram) at this stage to evaluate your heart’s electrical activity.
If the information from these tests proves insufficient for your situation, the doctor may order some advanced tests, such as an echocardiogram or calcium scoring. The former is basically an ultrasound of your heart, which allows doctors to monitor your heart health in real time. The latter is a new test in preventive cardiology that detects calcium deposits in your coronary arteries to identify plaque buildup in certain individuals. This can be useful when treatment decisions are unclear and your doctor needs a more accurate assessment of your risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Why is preventive cardiology gaining importance worldwide?
As you can probably already tell, if you are experiencing symptoms of heart disease, your muscles may have already been damaged beyond a certain threshold. Preventive cardiology is here to change that and to take down heart disease as the leading cause of death worldwide.
Instead of waiting for a heart attack, stroke, or even chest pain before allowing a doctor to conduct their diagnosis, this approach focuses on identifying your risk factors earlier and intervening as soon as possible to prevent the problem from growing any further. This might involve improving your blood pressure control, lowering cholesterol, managing diabetes, increasing physical activity, and reducing other lifestyle habits that may pose a risk to your cardiovascular health.
Going down this route is, in fact, a very good opportunity for you to gain a better understanding of your cardiovascular health. Not only will it help you uncover some hidden risks that may have slipped under your radar, but it will also provide some much-needed reassurance when everything looks healthy on the surface. Not only will you feel healthy, but you will also actually be healthy on the inside, too.
When should you take a cardiologist’s recommendations seriously?
In the end, you went for a health checkup, and your doctor has recommended getting a heart check. Should you take this suggestion seriously? Well, the simplest answer is yes. Always take the suggestion with utmost seriousness. No cardiologist will recommend a test for no reason. Even if you feel completely healthy, they must have identified a factor that warranted a closer look at your heart health.
Maybe it is your cholesterol levels that have crept upwards. Maybe your blood pressure has been spiking. Maybe you have a family history that places you at a greater risk of a disease, or maybe it is simply a matter of age. Whatever the reason, it is very important that you follow your doctor’s advice and have a heart checkup as soon as possible. Remember, the goal is not to find out that something is wrong with you. It is to ensure that you are in a position to fix a problem long before it threatens your life. Try not to view a heart checkup recommendation as bad news; instead, see it as a preventive step to help you stay healthy for years to come.
