{"id":530522,"date":"2026-07-03T04:44:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T04:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530522\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T04:44:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T04:44:28","slug":"doctors-simple-test-to-screen-your-heart-disease-risk-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530522\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor’s simple test to screen your heart disease risk at home"},"content":{"rendered":"

A heart surgeon has shared a simple at-home screening that may help indicate your heart disease risk factors\"Senior<\/p>\n

There is a straightforward method to test if you are at risk of heart disease.(Image: Witthaya Prasongsin via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A doctor has shared a straightforward at-home test on social media that could help assess your risk of developing heart disease. Heart surgeon Dr Jeremy London, who frequently posts cardiovascular health advice on his TikTok account, recently demonstrated this simple method<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The test requires nothing more than a tape measure and a few minutes of your time. Dr Jeremy explains: “It’s called the waist-to-height ratio, and the rule is simple. You want the circumference of your waist to be less than half your height.”<\/p>\n

The doctor explains that visceral fat, commonly known as belly fat, is metabolically active and represents a recognised factor in cardiovascular and other chronic conditions, reports the Mirror<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He added: “There was one study that followed over half a million patients for 12 years, and they found that if, in fact, the propensity of fat was in the visceral area, there was an increased risk of heart disease.”<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Thankfully, all you need is a tape measure to do the test(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

How to test the waist-to-height ratio at home<\/p>\n

Begin by taking a tape measure and measuring your waist at belly-button level. Exhale completely, and avoid pulling your stomach in.<\/p>\n

Next, measure your height and divide your waist measurement by your height.<\/p>\n

Dr Jeremy then advises: “If it’s greater than .5 then this is a reason to dig a little deeper with your doctor.<\/p>\n

“Now this doesn’t tell the whole story, obviously, but it’s a great place to start. And if you don’t measure it, you can’t fix it.”<\/p>\n

How can I prevent heart disease?<\/p>\n

Dr Jeremy’s guidance follows advice from Cardiologist David Min, MD, who highlighted four essential foods that may help lower heart disease risk – apples, avocados, blueberries and oranges.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Eating Well, he explained: “A number of studies have shown that eating more fruit can lower your risk of a heart attack, stroke or death from cholesterol disease.”<\/p>\n

Beyond incorporating these fruits into your diet, there are numerous additional strategies to reduce your risk of heart disease. Chief among them is maintaining a healthy, balanced diet that’s low in unhealthy saturated fats and rich in fibre.<\/p>\n

Further measures include:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A heart surgeon has shared a simple at-home screening that may help indicate your heart disease risk factors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60,1821,6116],"class_list":["post-530522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-life-hacks","tag-tiktok"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}