Your regular exam from your doctor may not be enough says the NY Times. Fitness checks; the next big health idea coming to a doctor near you. For years, we have been told about the importance of regular doctor visits to determine our health status. This exam has been modified over the years, as well as its overall worth being debated. Many of the screens we were told to do for our health have been modified and some we have been told to avoid altogether. Maybe the problem lies in what our doctors usually don't check for; fitness. According to the NY Times, Aerobic fitness should be added as an important vital sign, along with body temperature, blood pressure, pulse and breathing rates. This is a new recommendation from the American Heart Association. Read more about this here Aerobic fitness should be considered a vital sign, just as body temperature, blood pressure, pulse and breathing rates are now, according to a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association. The statement points out that fitness can be a better indicator of someone"™s risk for heart disease and early death than such standard risk factors as smoking, obesity and high blood pressure. The authors recommend that each of us should have our aerobic fitness assessed as part of medical examinations and, if our fitness is on the low side, we should be advised and helped to start exercising. The authors also suggest that if your physician does not begin to determine your aerobic fitness in the near future, you should do so yourself, using any of several scientifically validated online tools. Read more