Weekly health quiz: Blood pressure, fasting and sirtuins

1 Which of the following tests is a powerful measure of your heart disease risk?

• Coronary artery calcium (CAC) score

  Your coronary artery calcium or CAC score is a powerful measure of your cardiac disease risk. Having a CAC score of 0 in middle age means you have a very low risk (1.4%) of heart attack in the following decade; above 1,000, your risk of a heart attack within the next 10 years is 37%. Learn more.

• Total cholesterol
• LDL and HDL cholesterol
• Mean corpuscular volume

2 Which of the following accounts for the majority of the metals found in dental amalgam?

• Silver
• Mercury

  The terms "silver filling" is misleading as it refers to the color and not the composition of dental amalgam. Neurotoxic mercury actually accounts for about 50% of the metals used in amalgam. Learn more.

• Tin
• Aluminum

3 Which of the following is currently the deadliest drug class in the U.S.?

• Blood pressure medication
• Antidepressants
• Opioid pain killers

  In 2017, an estimated 47,600 Americans died from overdoses involving an opioid drug and as of June that year, opioids became the leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 50. Learn more.

• Anti-smoking drugs

4 According to the latest (2017) clinical guidelines, healthy blood pressure is:

• 120/90
• 140/80
• 140/90
• 120/80

  Clinical blood pressure guidelines now call for a blood pressure goal of 120/80. Elevated blood pressure or prehypertension is defined as a systolic blood pressure between 120 and 129. Stage 1 high blood pressure is 130 and 139 systolic, and 80 to 89 diastolic. Stage 2 high blood pressure is anything over 140 systolic and 90 diastolic. Learn more.

5 Autophagy is activated during which of the following fasting phases?

• After 16 hours of not eating

  Autophagy is activated after about 16 hours of fasting, which is why restricting your daily eating to eight hours or less is advisable. Learn more.

• Within 10 hours of not eating
• The initial refeeding
• Several days after refeeding

6 Sirtuins are:

• Protein sensing compounds responsible for aging
• Environmental stress sensing proteins responsible for aging

  Sirtuins are proteins that act as environmental stress sensors and are responsible for longevity. Activating sirtuins is one way to increase longevity in yeast and worms. One compound found to activate sirtuins is NAD. Another is resveratrol. Learn more.

• Carbohydrate sensing compounds responsible for weight gain
• Nutrient sensing proteins responsible for autophagy