It’s called the Max Pulse. You may or may not have heard of it. It’s a simple screening device that can help to catch the precursors to the #1 cause of death in the U.S. – Heart Disease.
I mean, this test takes a few minutes. You just have to sit quietly with a clip on your index finger and it’s done. The test can tell you if you have plaque build up in your arteries (also called atherosclerosis).
Ah, HELLO, this is a no-brainer and absolutely EVERYONE should be getting this Max Pulse test once or twice a year. Come on!
The problem with Heart Disease, heart attacks and strokes is that 50% or more of those who have these maladies did not have symptoms until some form of cardiovascular event occurred! In other words, high blood pressure or high cholesterol is not always a symptom. More than half of the people who have heart attacks or strokes had NO symptoms before these hit.
So here we have a simple screening that can be done that can tell you if you have plaque build up or hardening of the arteries, but very few doctors are doing it. It is considered experimental or questionable, despite the fact that there are significant bonafide medical research studies that have been done. In fact, 10 years ago the European Society of Hypertension (ESH) and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) added the use of such testing as “an early index of large artery stiffening” into their Guideline for the Management of Arterial Hypertension.
Here’s an excerpt from this Guideline about this:
“Over the past 10 years, a large body of evidence has been collected on large artery stiffening and the wave reflection phenomenon, which have been identified as being the most important pathophysiological determinants of isolated systolic hypertension and pulse pressure increases. Measuring arterial stiffness via changes in vessel diameter in relation to blood pressure changes is complex and not suitable for standard clinical use. On the other hand, measurement of pulse wave velocity provides a comprehensive non-invasive assessment of arterial stiffness, which is simple and accurate enough to be considered as a diagnostic procedure. This is because this measure has been shown to have an independent predictive value for all cause mortality and cardiovascular morbidity, coronary events and strokes in patients with uncomplicated essential hypertension.”
The main devices used for this testing are:
- the Digital Pulsewave Analyzer (DPA) made by Meridian Corp. https://digitalpulseanalyzer.com/
- the Max Pulse device, made by Medicore Medical. https://longlifecardio.com/
These Max Pulse and DPA devices use pulse wave technology to analyze how elastic or hardened the arteries are. Of course, anyone who is found to have serious plaque build up in their arteries, should be sent for more in depth testing and should be worked with to make important lifestyle changes to halt the decline and hopefully reverse the condition. The earlier it is caught, the easier it is to address.
The next time you go to your doctor’s office you should ask them for this test. If they don’t have it available, you should tell them to get one of these devices (links are above) and start testing all of their patients as part of taking your vitals. [I’d say that a simple test to help prevent the #1 cause of death would be pretty vital!]
Let’s get some grassroots demand going on for technology that can help us save lives!
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