Let’s start this article by saying health is wealth. This saying is correct in every sense, because when you are healthy every other thing falls in line. That being said, we also know that heart failure is one of the most common causes of death. So why not be more informed about it, because being concerned about your own health is a good thing. So we are talking about KnowYour4, which is a web service which calculates your risk of heart attack. Yes you read that right, the website takes 4 parameters from you as input and calculates your risk of heart attack.
Now there are two ways to access your risk of heart attack: one is more accurate and second one is a rough estimate.
Let’s see the more accurate one first:
When you go to this website you will see a page like the one shown in the screenshot above. Here you will see four boxes which you have to fill out. These are Total Cholesterol, HDL Cholesterol, Blood Pressure and number of cigarettes smoked in a week. The best way to fill these numbers are from a recent blood test report. Having these numbers from your blood report will make the results more accurate.
Let’s see the second method now:
In case you don’t have the numbers from a blood test report handy, then you can opt for this second method which gives you a rough estimate of your risk level. In this method, you will be asked to enter your height, weight, blood pressure and number of cigarettes smoked in a week.
After entering details in any of the two methods, you will need to answer some more questions about your gender, ethnicity, if you take any blood pressure medication, and whether you are a diabetic.
After this click the “calculate my risk” button to get the results. The results would be as displayed in the screenshot below.
There is a graphical representation of the risk on the left hand side of the screen and a risk factors table on the right hand side. The graph shows you the ideal risk percentage and your current risk percentage for a heart disease. The risk factors table compares the current versus the ideal values for the data entered. This is also something which you see in your blood test reports, where you see a table with your current values against the normal ones.
You can also check out websites where you can maintain health records online.
If there is a huge difference between your ideal and current risk then you should choose a healthier life style to reduce your chances of a heart attack. With all this being said it is pretty understood that this is merely a risk assessment tool which may or may not be accurate. In no way should it be taken as a diagnosis for a disease. You should always consult your doctor for any concerns.
Check out KnowYour4 here.
