Dr. Oz, co-author of YOU: The Owner's Manual and YOU: The Smart Patient , is a world-renowned cardiac surgeon. He's here with a big wake-up call for America.

"How do you make American medicine better?" Dr. Oz asks. "You do it by making patients smarter. The first thing you have to figure out is what [medical testing] is critical to you. "

One test that's important to both men and women is testing your blood pressure. High blood pressure—also known as hypertension—damages arteries and causes heart disease. Dr. Oz says optimal blood pressure is 115 over 75.