Can You Pass THIS 90- Second Heart Test?

If you’re suffering from coronary heart disease, you’re likely to experience symptoms like chest pain or shortness of breath during exercise.

But you don’t have to wonder if your heart is in trouble.

There’s a simple test you can do from the comfort of your own home that will tell if your heart’s in trouble.

It only takes 90 seconds or less.

Exercise capacity is a good indicator of heart health.

Doctors will often have patients walk on a treadmill to measure metabolic equivalents (METs). This is essentially the ratio between your working metabolic rate and your resting metabolic rate.

Your metabolic rate is the rate of energy expended over a certain amount of time.

Achieving 10 METs during exercise has been linked with a lower mortality rate over 10 years.

Eight METs or less indicates an increased mortality rate.

Researchers wanted to find out if there was a way to test METs at home by simply climbing a few sets of stairs.

To test this, they had 165 patients who were suspected of having coronary heart disease walk on a treadmill at gradually increasing intensity until exhaustion to measure their METs.

After resting, the patients then climbed four sets of stairs (60 steps total) quickly without stopping.

They compared the time it took to climb the steps to the METs they achieved during the treadmill testing.

Here’s what the researchers found out:

• Climbing the steps in 40-45 was the equivalent of 9-10 METs.
• Climbing the steps in 90 seconds or more was the equivalent of less than 8 METs.

During the previous treadmill test, the researchers also generated images of the heart to assess its function. Normal function during exercise indicates that your risk of coronary heart disease is pretty low.

The researchers also compared these results to the stair climb, and once again there was a strong connection:

• 58 percent of the patients who took more than 90 seconds to climb the stairs had abnormal heart function.
• Only 32 percent of those who climbed the stairs in under 60 seconds abnormal heart function.

The bottom line is that how fast (or slow) you can climb a few flights of steps could be a simple, at-home indicator of your heart health.

I’m not recommending that you climb stairs instead of going to your doctor.

But if you’re wondering how your heart’s doing, the stair climb test could be a good first step.