The American Heart Association (AHA) recently released a statement that aerobic fitness should be considered a new vital sign. In increasing efforts to identify the factors that lead to heart disease and unexpected death due to cardiovascular issues, heart experts are searching for the most relevant signs of impending heart disease. Aerobic fitness, it seems, may be among the most telling of those signs.
What Is a Vital Sign?
Vital signs are measurements of the basic human bodily functions required for life. There are four main vital signs regularly monitored by health professionals:
- Pulse – The rhythm of the heart as it pushes out and takes in blood
- Blood Pressure – The force of blood as it pushes against the walls of arteries
- Respiration – The number of natural breaths per minute
- Body Temperature – The internal, overall temperature of the body
Physicians, dentists, and other healthcare providers use vital signs to help diagnose medical problems. However, there may be other measures of human life that can help medical science progress in the field of diagnosis, especially when doctors seek ways to detect and treat problems with vital organs.
Why Should Aerobic Fitness Be a New Vital Sign?
According to the American Heart Association, low levels of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) are associated with high risk of cardiovascular disease, death, and cancer. Researchers believe that clinical evidence has demonstrated the potential strength of CRF is greater than traditional risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, and diabetes at predicting mortality. This evidence may make it one of the best early signs for recognizing impending heart disease.
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| 2002 research unveils a connection between low CRF and high mortality rate. Source: nih.gov |
The organization recommends that physicians begin measuring aerobic fitness as soon as possible. Traditionally, the effectiveness of the body’s ability to deliver oxygen to tissues has been measured using a treadmill test, but an increasing number of fitness calculators are providing more accurate estimates of physical fitness without the need to stimulate aerobic activity in patients.
Patients can also measure their aerobic fitness level at home using similar calculators available online. Those patients can then use the information gathered from the calculator to compare their fitness levels to others their age and determine whether a change in activity is necessary for health.
Will a New Vital Sign Measurement Change Healthcare?
Considering aerobic fitness one of the vital signs essential to modern health care has the potential to increase the accuracy of diagnoses and better recognize the early signs of heart disease. The more medical science understands about the relationship between the health of the body’s systems and mortality, the greater the chance is that scientists can uncover unique ways to save lives.
However, for now, official heart disease risk calculations remain unchanged. It will take time for medical professionals to consider the recommendations and evidence provided by the AHA’s recent research. Until a decision is made, individuals can still test their fitness levels and work on improving cardiovascular and aerobic health by trying to participate in activity daily.
