Climbing four flights of stairs in less than a minute indicates good heart health!
“The ladder test is an easy way to test your heart health. If the ascent of four flights of stairs takes more than one and a half minutes, then the state of health is in question and it would be nice to consult a doctor,” says cardiologist Jesus Peteiro from the University Hospital of a Coruña, Spain, reports news-medical
According to the doctor, the idea of the experiment was to find a simple and inexpensive method for assessing the state of heart health, preferably related to daily activities. This should help physicians identify patients requiring a more thorough examination.
For the experiment, 165 people were invited with symptoms of suspected coronary heart disease – chest pain or shortness of breath during exercise. Participants walked or jogged on a treadmill, gradually increasing in intensity. Exercise capacity was measured as metabolic equivalent (MET). After 15-20 minutes of rest, the volunteers had to climb four flights of stairs (60 steps) at a fast pace.
Then the relationship between MET and the time it took to climb the stairs was analyzed. Patients whose ascent took less than 40-45 seconds had high METs (9-10 units), which is associated with a low mortality rate (1% or less per year). Conversely, patients who took 1.5 minutes or more to climb stairs barely reached 8 METs, which indicates a higher mortality rate: 2-4% per year.
Surveys showed that about 58% of patients who climbed stairs in more than 1.5 minutes had heart problems. And only 32% of those who climbed the stairs in less than a minute had heart problems.
