JUST TAP YOUR FOOT TO CHECK YOUR HEARTBEAT

IT MAY sound obvious, but your pulse is a key predictor of poor health. Try this two-step test. STEP 1 TO FIND your pulse, put your middle and index finger on the inside of your wrist. Set a stopwatch and count how many beats you feel in 20 seconds — multiply this by three for your resting heart rate. For the best result, do this while lying in bed, when you’re most relaxed.

The slower your resting heart rate, the more efficiently your heart is pumping blood around your body. Most adults tick over at 60-100 beats per minute (bpm), though a superfit athlete might have a resting heart rate of 40bpm.

Any score in the 60s is considered healthy, but more than 80 is ‘poor’. Last month, researchers in China found that someone with a resting heart rate of 80 is 45 per cent more likely to die of any cause in the next 20 years than someone with a resting heart rate of 45. And your risk of

dying from any illness rises by 9 per cent for every 10bpm over 45.

Your resting heart rate will speed up with age. You can lower it by five to 25bpm through exercise (try swimming, jogging or cycling), reducing stress, quitting smoking and losing weight. See your GP if it’s more than 120 or less than 40.

STEP 2 CHECK your pulse while sitting or standing, then tap your foot in time with your heartbeat for one minute. If your tapping is irregular, you could have an irregular heartbeat (atrial fibrillation), which raises the risk of stroke. It could also be a sign of arrhythmia, another common heart rhythm problem that is usually harmless.

‘If you’re tapping regularly, it’s OK, but if the tap is consistently uneven you should visit your GP,’ says Dr Howard Marshall, a consultant cardiologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. ‘If you have atrial fibrillation, you may be prescribed medication to thin the blood.’