How healthy is your heart?

I called up a friend of mine last week Thursday and she told me that her partner was in hospital for what was suspected to be the early stages of a heart attack. During the day he had complained about a tingling feeling up and down his left arm and then he had woken up in the middle of the night feeling like someone was crushing his chest. He was rushed to hospital and was kept there under observation for four days. And thing is if you see my friends partner, he is as healthy looking as they come – sporty, fit and a picture of good health. Just goes to show how much I (we) know of what goes on beneath our skin.

Anyway, spurred on by this piece of bad news, I went into the city centre early on Friday morning to have my cholesterol levels checked. Heart UK, the Cholesterol Charity, is going around the UK testing cholesterol levels for free, so if you live in the UK and they happen to be in your area, I urge you to go get your levels checked out.

It’s a really simple and quick test which only entails a little pin prick of your index finger. The blood is then collected in little vial and put in a machine which gives you your readings after about 10 minutes or so.

I was very pleased to learn that I have a 0% chance of developing heart disease in the next 10 years. My total cholesterol level is 4.97 mmol/l (anything below 5 is good), of which my bad or LDL cholesterol level is 2.66mmol/l (anywhere between 2 – 4 is still okay) and my good or HDL cholesterol level is 1.64mmol/l (above 1.2 is good and the higher the better). I wasn’t too surprised though because I eat fairly healthily and junk food is a no-no for me. My blood pressure was a bit low, but nothing to worry about.

It may also interest you to know that heart disease is the number one killer of women – even higher than breast cancer. This surprised me.

So if you have the chance to, go get your cholesterol levels checked out – you just might be saving your life.