February is Heart Month and we started it off right with a routine heart stress test. A stress test, or an exercise electrocardiogram, records your heart’s response to the stress of exercise.
Essentially – it’s a quick cardio workout to see how your heart responds. During a stress test, you’re asked to walk on a treadmill, or pedal a bicycle, with the speed gradually increasing. The test continues until your heart is beating as fast as it safely can. This test helps your doctor understand how your heart handles progressively greater exercise and exertion. A technician is on hand throughout the test to monitor heart rate, breathing and blood pressure.
The average test length for a healthy adult is 6-12 minutes.
We kicked the month off by following leading heart disease researcher Dr. Scott Lear to his yearly stress test. We documented the whole thing on our Instagram channel to show you what a stress test really involves.
