Two people. Same cholesterol number. Same ‘normal’ blood pressure. Very different heart risk.
As a Registered Nutritional Therapist, I sit with people in clinic every week who have been told their heart numbers are ‘fine’, yet the advanced markers underneath tell a very different story. How often do you think about your heart? You might only give it a passing thought when you’re nervous, and it feels like it’s about to beat right out of your chest. Or maybe you’re most aware of your heart when you’re doing something that raises your heart rate, like walking or climbing the stairs. (Good for you!)
Since you’ve landed on this page, it’s safe to assume that sometimes you think about the health of your heart, too. That curiosity is a good thing, because heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide. According to the British Heart Foundation, over 7.6 million people in the UK are living with some form of heart or circulatory disease, and most of it builds quietly over years.
This piece walks you through the five markers that actually predict risk, the everyday habits that move them, and where to go next if you want a clinician to look at yours. If you would rather skip ahead, you can book a free 20-minute call and we’ll point you in the right direction.
What is heart disease?
Put simply, heart disease is a broad term for any condition affecting the heart’s function or structure. Coronary artery disease, the most common type, involves calcified plaque building up in the arteries that supply blood to the heart, narrowing or blocking them and raising the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Other forms include arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms), heart failure (when the heart cannot pump blood efficiently) and valvular disease (problems with the heart valves).
The hard part: many people live with heart disease for years without knowing, because the standard checks tend to catch it late. We see this every week in clinic. By the time the GP letter says ‘borderline’, the artery wall has often been changing quietly for a decade. That’s why a deeper look at the drivers behind heart health matters earlier than most people think.
How to know if your heart is healthy
These are the five markers we look at in clinic. Three you can check at home with a basic monitor or a finger-prick. Two need a proper blood draw and a specialist lab. All five tell a different part of the same story.
Blood pressure. A healthy reading is around 120/80 mmHg. Consistently high blood pressure forces the heart to work harder and damages artery walls. If yours is creeping up, that’s not a ‘wait and see’ moment, it’s an early signal worth acting on. Our deeper look at blood pressure in adults is the next read.
Resting heart rate. 60 to 100 beats per minute is the textbook range. 55 to 75 is healthier. Athletes often sit below this. The lower (and steadier) it is, the better your cardiovascular fitness usually is.
Cholesterol and lipid profile. This is where most people get a false sense of safety. Total cholesterol on its own is a blunt number. APOB, oxidised LDL, VLDL, Lp(a) and small dense LDL (sdLDL) tell us much more about the actual risk of plaque building in the artery wall. High APOB, for instance, is strongly associated with atherosclerosis even when LDL cholesterol looks ‘normal’. If you want the full breakdown, your cholesterol results explained: LDL, HDL, triglycerides and particle size is our deep-dive on these markers.
Homocysteine. Elevated homocysteine damages the lining of arteries and promotes clotting. It can also be a sign that your body’s methylation process isn’t running properly, which has ripple effects across hormones, mood and detoxification. Our piece on the role of methylation explains why this marker is worth knowing.
Omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. Modern Western diets have shifted from an ancestral 1 to 4:1 omega-6 to omega-3 ratio to as high as 15-20:1. Too much omega-6 from processed seed oils, fried foods and packaged snacks, combined with too little omega-3 from oily fish, feeds the chronic, low-grade inflammation that quietly drives heart disease.
If three or more of those markers are unknown to you, that’s the gap to close. Book a free 20-minute call and we’ll talk you through the right testing route, whether that’s via your GP or via us.
Everyday habits that move these markers
Heart disease isn’t a sudden event. It’s the cumulative result of small daily choices, repeated over years. Here are the four habits that move the five markers above the most.
- Blood sugar swings. Frequent spikes and crashes drive inflammation and damage blood vessels. Over time, they push the body towards insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, both of which sharply increase heart disease risk. The fix is simpler than people expect: protein at every meal, fibre with carbs, and cutting back on ultra-processed snacks and sugary drinks. If you’d like a structured, six-week version of this with one of our team, That Blood Sugar Fix is exactly that.
- Chronic stress and anxiety. Ongoing stress holds cortisol, blood pressure and heart rate high, day after day, which strains the cardiovascular system. Daily stress management isn’t a luxury; it’s a heart intervention. A 20-minute outdoor walk, slow nasal breathing, journaling or a few minutes of meditation all move the dial. Sue’s story is a good example of what happens when you treat stress and lifestyle as the lever rather than reaching straight for medication. Read how Sue brought her blood pressure down without medication on the blog.
Poor omega-3 intake. Most of us eat too much omega-6 from processed oils, fried foods and packaged snacks, and not enough omega-3 from oily fish, flax and hemp seeds. Aim for oily fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel, anchovies) three to four times a week, or a good-quality omega-3 supplement if you don’t eat fish. We’ve written a dedicated piece on understanding omega-3 and the essential fatty acids if you want to go deeper.
Relying on standard cholesterol tests alone. Two people can have identical LDL numbers and very different risks. This is the single biggest blind spot we see in clinic. Advanced testing (oxidised LDL, VLDL, APOB, Lp(a), sdLDL) predicts cardiovascular events far better than a basic NHS lipid panel. Our Wellness Check and Cardio Metabolic Profile (run in partnership with a specialist lab) provide this deeper insight, plus a centrifuge blood draw.
If you’ve already had a ‘borderline’ or confusing result and you want a clinician to actually look at it with you, our heart health and complex conditions programme is where that one-to-one work happens.
Other heart-healthy adjustments
Move more. The NHS recommends 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, spread across the week, not crammed into a weekend. Aerobic exercise (walking, jogging, swimming) improves circulation. Resistance training lowers resting blood pressure and raises HDL cholesterol. If you’re over 40 and only doing cardio, this is the lever to add: more muscle means better blood sugars and a longer healthspan.
Cut down on salt. The salt that pushes blood pressure up isn’t the pinch you add at home; it’s the hidden load in ready meals, takeaways, supermarket bread, stocks, sauces and many cheeses. Excess sodium pulls water into the bloodstream, raises pressure and stresses the artery wall. Check labels.
Watch added sugars. Added sugars raise blood pressure, drive inflammation and strain the heart and blood vessels. They hide everywhere: ‘low-fat’ yoghurts, granola, sauces, breakfast cereals. Our blood sugar food guide is a free download that walks you through the swaps that matter most.
Mind your mental health. Anxiety and depression genuinely increase inflammation and heart disease risk. Treat the mind the way you treat the body: gentle daily movement, breathwork, meditation, and the simple, evidence-backed move of eating more fruit and veg, which correlates with higher optimism and lower psychological distress.
Ready to actually look at your heart numbers?
Three ways to go from here, depending on where you are.
Start here. If you want to clean up the daily blood-sugar swings that quietly drive heart risk, grab our blood sugar food guide. It’s the first thing we’d ask you to read.
Get the full picture. Our Wellness Check with the Cardio Metabolic Profile includes the advanced lipid markers (APOB, oxidised LDL, Lp(a), sdLDL), homocysteine and the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, plus a clinician walking you through what every number actually means.
Work with us properly. If your numbers are already telling you something needs to change, our heart health and complex conditions programme is a one-to-one, multi-month piece of work to bring those markers back into a safe range using nutrition, lifestyle and targeted testing.
Not sure which rung is right for you? Book a free 20-minute call and we’ll point you to the one that fits.
