Study: If You Finishes 4 Stair Flights in One Minute, You Have Good Health

Going to work or simply visiting a building nearby involves a lot of physical activity. 

Now that work from set-up is conveniently introduced due to lockdown, you might be missing the hassle of climbing a tremendous height of stairs, more than spending hours in front of the computer with your favorite pillow to snuggle on. 

Now that convenience is also a priority, think back, do you ride the elevator going up your office, or do you prefer using the stairs especially when you are running late. 

Whether you are a part of the population who prefers using the elevator more often, maybe partly because you don't want to get too tired before going to your office desk. But did you know that the exhaustion you feel whenever you use the stairs, indicates and tells you about your heart health?

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Stairs and Heart Health Connection 

(Photo : John Moore)
Students walk up a stairwell between classes on the first day of school at Stamford High School on September 08, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many school districts nationwide delayed the first day of school until after the Labor Day weekend. Stamford Public Schools started the semester with a hybrid model, which includes in-class learning every other day. Many families, however, chose the distance learning option due to fears of COVID-19 transmission between students.

Healthline reports that Spanish researchers discover that being able to climb four flights of stairs in under a minute is an accurate indicator of good cardiac health. 

Cardiologists from University Hospital A Coruña, Dr. Jesús Peteiro notes in the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) release that the stairs test is a laidback way of diagnosing an individual's [heart] health. He adds in the release that if an individual takes more than one-and-a-half minutes of climbing up four flights of stairs, he stresses that it means that the health is not doing great and they need to consult a doctor. 

Study Methods and results

Science Daily mentions that the Spanish study involves 165 symptomatic patients advised to have exercise testing because of known coronary artery disease. They add that the participants walked or ran on a treadmill, gradually increasing the intensity, and continuing the exercise until exhaustion of the participants. 

Healthline adds that exercise capacity measures as metabolic equivalents or METs. European Society of Cardiology (ESC) furthers that after resting for 15-20 minutes, the patients were asked to climb four flights of stairs at a fast pace without stopping, but also without running, then the time was recorded. 

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When both METs from the treadmill and stairs test undergone analysis by the researchers, Science Daily notes that patients who climbed the stairs in 40-45 seconds achieved more than 9-10 METs. Healthline adds that a previous study demonstrates that achievement of 10 METs during an exercise test has a relationship with a low death rate. 

Meanwhile, ESC also points out that some 58% of the patients who completed climbing up the stairs in 1.5 minutes, demonstrates an abnormal heart function during the treadmill examination. 

On the other hand, ESC adds that 32% of the ones who climbed the stairs in less than a minute had an abnormal heart function during the treadmill examination.  

Dr. Peteiro emphasizes in Science Daily that the relation between the stairs time and the capacity of exercise would be similar in the general population.

Takeaway

The heart is an important part of our body that plays an integral role in it. Taking care of the heart is like taking care of your whole system. Early diagnosis of any condition can help you and your heart to live longer. Taking the stairs, for example, is a cheap way of knowing the state of your heart. 

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Check out more news and information on Heart Health on MD News Daily.