You can check your heart in several ways, from a simple pulse check at your wrist to blood tests and imaging done by a doctor. A normal resting heart rate for adults falls between 60 and 100 beats per minute, and that’s one of the easiest numbers to measure on your own. But “checking your heart” also means knowing your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and the warning signs that something might be off.
How to Check Your Pulse at Home
Sit down and rest quietly for a few minutes before you start. Turn one hand palm-up and find the spot between your wrist bone and the tendon on the thumb side. Place the tips of your index and middle fingers from your other hand on that spot and press lightly until you feel each beat. Don’t push too hard, or you’ll actually block blood flow and lose the pulse.
Count the beats for a full 60 seconds while watching a clock or timer. Some people count for 15 seconds and multiply by four, but the full minute gives you a more accurate number and lets you notice whether the rhythm feels steady or skips around. A normal resting heart rate for most adults is 60 to 100 bpm. If you’re physically active or athletic, yours may sit in the 40s or 50s, which is perfectly normal.
Beyond the number, pay attention to the rhythm itself. Beats that feel regularly spaced are a good sign. If you notice frequent skipped beats, a fluttering sensation, or a rhythm that feels chaotic rather than steady, that’s worth bringing up with a doctor.
Know Your Blood Pressure Numbers
Blood pressure is one of the strongest predictors of heart disease, and you can measure it at home with an automatic cuff or at most pharmacies for free. The 2025 guidelines from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology break adult blood pressure into four categories:
- Normal: below 120/80 mm Hg
- Elevated: 120 to 129 systolic (the top number) with the bottom number still under 80
- Stage 1 hypertension: 130 to 139 systolic, or 80 to 89 diastolic
- Stage 2 hypertension: 140 or higher systolic, or 90 or higher diastolic
If your blood pressure is normal, checking once a year is the standard recommendation. If it’s elevated or higher, more frequent monitoring makes sense. When measuring at home, sit with your feet flat on the floor, your arm supported at heart level, and rest for five minutes before taking a reading. Take two or three readings a minute apart and average them for the most reliable result.
Cholesterol and Blood Tests
A lipid panel is a blood test that measures the fats circulating in your bloodstream, and it’s one of the core ways doctors assess heart risk. For adults 20 and older, healthy targets are:
- Total cholesterol: below 200 mg/dL
- LDL (the type that clogs arteries): below 100 mg/dL
- HDL (the protective type): 60 mg/dL or higher is ideal. Below 40 for men or below 50 for women is considered low.
For adults at normal risk, the American Heart Association recommends a lipid panel every four to six years. After age 40, your doctor will typically use your cholesterol numbers along with your age, blood pressure, and other factors to calculate your 10-year risk of a heart attack or stroke, which helps guide whether you need more aggressive treatment.
Another blood marker worth knowing about is C-reactive protein, which measures inflammation in your body. When tested with a high-sensitivity version of the test, a result below 1 mg/L means low cardiovascular risk, 1 to 3 is intermediate, and above 3 signals higher risk. This test isn’t part of routine screening for everyone, but it can be useful if your doctor is trying to get a clearer picture of your overall heart risk.
What Medical Heart Tests Look For
If a doctor wants to look more closely at your heart, three tests come up most often. An electrocardiogram (EKG) records your heart’s electrical activity and takes just a few minutes in a doctor’s office. Sticky patches are placed on your chest, and the machine reads how electrical signals travel through your heart. This is the primary tool for detecting irregular rhythms like atrial fibrillation, signs of a current or previous heart attack, and evidence that blood flow to the heart may be reduced.
An echocardiogram is essentially an ultrasound of your heart. It produces real-time images that show how your heart valves open and close, whether the heart muscle is thickening or weakening, and how effectively blood is flowing through the chambers. It’s the go-to test for diagnosing valve problems, structural defects, and heart failure.
A cardiac stress test combines an EKG with exercise, usually walking on a treadmill that gradually gets faster and steeper. The goal is to see how your heart performs under increased demand. Blockages in the coronary arteries may not cause symptoms at rest but can show up clearly when your heart rate is elevated. If you can’t exercise, a medication can be used to simulate the effect.
What Smartwatches Can and Can’t Tell You
Consumer smartwatches have become surprisingly capable at screening for heart rhythm problems. A 2025 systematic review published in JACC: Advances found that across multiple brands, smartwatches detected atrial fibrillation with 95% sensitivity and 97% specificity overall. Samsung and Apple Watch both performed well, with Samsung reaching about 97% sensitivity and Apple Watch around 94%.
That said, these devices are screening tools, not diagnostic ones. They’re good at flagging an irregular rhythm that deserves a closer look, but a notification on your wrist isn’t a diagnosis. Any alert for atrial fibrillation or persistent unusual readings should be followed up with a clinical EKG. Where wearables genuinely shine is in catching intermittent rhythm problems that might not happen to occur during a short office visit.
Physical Signs to Watch For
Your body gives visible and physical clues about heart health that don’t require any equipment. Swelling in your ankles, feet, or legs can signal fluid retention caused by a heart that isn’t pumping efficiently. You can test this yourself: press a finger firmly into the swollen area for about five seconds, then release. If the skin stays indented and takes more than a few seconds to bounce back, that’s called pitting edema. The deeper the pit and the longer it takes to rebound, the more significant the fluid buildup. A shallow dent that rebounds immediately is mild, while a deep indentation that lingers for a minute or more suggests something that needs medical attention.
Unusual fatigue that seems out of proportion to your activity level, shortness of breath during tasks that used to be easy, or waking up breathless at night are all signs that your heart may be struggling to keep up with your body’s demands.
Heart Attack Symptoms Beyond Chest Pain
Most people picture a heart attack as crushing chest pain, but the full range of symptoms is broader, especially for women. Sweating, nausea, dizziness, and unusual fatigue are common heart attack symptoms in women and may occur while resting or even during sleep. Women are also more likely to experience shortness of breath, vomiting, and pain in the back, jaw, lower chest, or upper abdomen rather than the classic pressure in the center of the chest.
Men more commonly experience the textbook symptom of chest pressure or tightness radiating to the left arm, but they can also have atypical presentations. The key signal for both men and women is a combination of symptoms that feel new, unexplained, and intense, particularly if they come on suddenly.
How Often to Get Screened
For blood pressure, once a year is enough if your readings are normal. Cholesterol panels are recommended every four to six years for adults at average risk starting at age 20, with more frequent testing if you have elevated risk factors like a family history of heart disease, diabetes, or obesity. After 40, your doctor will likely want to assess your overall cardiovascular risk profile more formally, combining lab results with personal and family history to decide whether preventive treatment makes sense.
There’s no single test that tells you everything about your heart. The combination of regular home checks (pulse, blood pressure), periodic blood work (cholesterol, inflammation markers), and clinical tests when symptoms or risk factors warrant them gives you the most complete picture. The simplest version of checking your heart is something you can do right now, sitting where you are, with two fingers on your wrist and a clock in front of you.