How to Check Heart Blockage at Home?

Signs of Heart Blockage at Home

You cannot diagnose heart blockages at home, but you can monitor your overall cardiovascular health and look for potential signs. The approaches include checking your heart rate, blood pressure, and weight. Additionally, you can monitor underlying conditions, such as shortness of breath or chest pain.  

What Can You Check for Any Heart Blockage at Home?

Let us discuss what approaches you can take at home to check for any heart blockages.

• Check Your Blood Pressure: A home blood pressure monitor can help you track high blood pressure, which is a major risk factor for heart blockages. It will also help you track daily blood pressure and identify trends. After identifying the trend, you can take immediate medical emergencies if there are serious conditions.
• Monitoring Your Heartbeat: Normal heart rate at the resting phase records between 60 BPM and 100 BPM. A resting heart rate above 100 BPM could indicate a serious heart issue. You can easily check your heartbeat rate through the pulse rate by placing fingers on your wrist or neck and counting the beats for a few minutes.
• Track Your Size and Weight: Overweight and unhealthy diets may pose the risk of the occurrence of cardiac arrest or infarction, especially in women. You must maintain a healthy weight, and a waist circumference can help reduce the risk of cardiac diseases.    
• Be Aware of the Symptoms: If you experience symptoms such as dizziness, fatigue, palpitations, chest pain, and shortness of breath, you must seek medical help. These symptoms are the common early signs of a cardiac problem.   
• Wear Tracking Devices: Fitness trackers in digital watches or applications on smartphones can provide continuous monitoring of the heart rate and other vital signs. This can provide detailed insight into your daily activities and cardiovascular health. Additionally, these apps will let you know of any abnormalities regarding irregular heartbeat or high blood pressure levels.  
• Use Home ECG Devices: Some portable ECG devices are available, which you can use to check and monitor rhythms regularly. These are quite affordable and will provide you with accurate results. However, it is not a complete alternative to the actual ECG device. You should not take any kind of medicine without consulting your cardiologist.
• Consult a Healthcare Professional: If you have concerns regarding your cardiovascular health, risks or complications, you can visit cardiologists. They can guide you to proper diagnostic methods and medications.  

What are the Risk Factors of a Heart Blockage?

These are some common risk factors that can increase the risk of a heart blockage:

• Age
• Obesity
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• High cholesterol
• Metabolic syndrome
• Chronic inflammatory conditions (rheumatoid arthritis, AIDS, or psoriasis)
• High triglyceride levels
• Family history of heart-related problems.  
   

What are the Common Tests for Heart Blockages?

If you suspect persistent palpitations or symptoms, like shortness of breath or dizziness, you must visit the doctor. They will ask you to do some diagnostic tests to check for cardiac blockages (atherosclerosis). These include:

• Lipoprotein (A) test
• Plasma Ceramides Test
• High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-CRP) Test
• Electrocardiogram (ECG)
• Coronary Angiogram
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
• Troponin T Test
   

Plaque accumulation in the heart arteries is the common cause of heart blockage (atherosclerosis). Initially, you may not see any signs, but gradually, they will start showing symptoms.