5 New Heart Tests That Could Save Your Life

When someone close to us or beloved public figures die suddenly in their fifties (or even younger) from a heart attack, it suddenly raises our awareness of the deadly danger posed by undiagnosed heart disease. And indeed, statistics show that 50 percent of those who die from coronary artery disease (CAD) had normal cholesterol readings and no prior symptoms.

But how do you know if you're at risk, and how bad that risk really is? Here are five new heart tests that show impressive results in detecting heart disease early and predicting future risk of heart attack and stroke.

Surprising Causes of Erectile Dysfunction
1. Coronary Artery Calcium Scan (CAC)

Calcium is one of the main components in the plaque that builds up inside coronary arteries, narrowing and stiffening them and obstructing blood flow to and through the heart. A CAC score of zero is considered ideal; a score over 400 indicates severe atherosclerosis. Although CAC scanning is still one of the lesser-known heart tests, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine a few years ago determined that the CAC test was a "strong predictor" of heart attack and fatal heart disease. The researchers followed close to 7,000 people, testing them for CAC, then followed them for more than three years, correlating the data with the number of fatal or life-threatening coronary events. Those whose scores ranged from 100 to 300 were seven times more likely to die of a heart attack or other heart ailment than those with low CAC scores, and those with scores over 300 were even more at risk.

5 Signs of an Unhealthy Heart

• Sexual problems. For males, erectile dysfunction is a common manifestation of arterial disease. ...
• Snoring/Sleep Apnea. ...
• Sore, swollen or bleeding gums. ...
• Puffy legs and feet. ...
• Aching or constriction in the shoulders or neck. ...
• Heartburn or indigestion.