Do-It-Yourself Cardiovascular Tests

“Holistic health expert Mariandy Fricke believes that the world’s best doctor and healer is you. Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz couldn’t agree more.

In their bestseller “You: The Owner’s Manual”, the medical doctors give readers easy-to-understand explanations about how the human body functions and what you can do to maintain good health and prevent disease.

If you want simple no-nonsense health information written with a touch of humor, this is the book for you. Roizen and Oz also have practical do-it-yourself tests for many aspects of health like gallstones, sleep apnea, memory, and food allergies..

The tests are not a substitute for seeking medical attention but are eye-openers that you may need to see a doctor. Here are three tests from the book to determine the health of your heart, lungs, and blood vessels.

Stairway to heaven.
The stairs in your home or office can tell you a lot about your heart and lungs, according to Roizen and Oz. The test is simple: Briskly run up two flights of stairs or walk six blocks. If you can do either without stopping to rest or without gasping for air, your lungs are most likely in okay shape.

They claim the test can determine if someone is fit for surgery. “For those who pass the test, it indicates a decrease in your risk of dying or being disabled in surgery to that of someone who is about ten years younger. It indicates your lung’s ability to provide oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.”

They recommend that people do the test every month to check lung function and overall fitness level. “One of the major warning signs of decreased lung function is seeing a severe change in your ability to complete the test – from being able to walk the flights easily to suddenly having a lot of trouble with it.

“The reason? When you exercise over this compact period of time, shortness of breath means all your organs are feeling deprived of oxygen, and that some of them might not be getting enough.”

South of the border
Men have a built in system to find out if their arteries are healthy or not. All they have to do is look below their belt. Roizen and Oz claim that the penis is a man’s dipstick. It can tell how everything is functioning throughout the rest of a man’s body.

“Without proper blood flow – meaning that arteries do not dilate appropriately because they are inflamed or clogged – men can’t get an erection because they can’t get blood in or keep it there.

“The chemical mechanisms that work to get blood in and out of the penis are the same ones that help blood flow to and from the brain, heart, and kidneys. No matter the location of veins and arteries in your body, it’s the same process”

Mirror, mirror
Roizen and Oz state that one of the first signs of arterial aging can be seen in your ear lobes. A diagonal crease in your lobes is a warning sign. They claim so are yellowish plaques of cholesterol deposits around the eyelids, which are called xanthelasmas.

Declining hormone levels can also be seen in the mirror. They write, “If a man notices that he used to shave once a day, but now has to shave less often, it’s a sign that testosterone is not stimulating a great deal of beard growth, which is a sign of low testosterone levels.”