Most adults’ hearts are ageing quicker than the rest of their body, a concerning new study has suggested.
But, US researchers have developed a new free online test that they claim could help predict biological age and turn back the clock.
Routine health data—including blood pressure, cholesterol levels, chronic illness, and lifestyle risk factors such as smoking—has long been considered a good marker of healthy ageing.
But until now, heart disease risk has been calculated as a percentage, leaving many patients uncertain of how likely they are to develop potentially deadly heart disease.
Traditionally, a doctor may tell a patient: ‘Eight out of ten people with your profile may suffer a heart event in the next 10 years.’
But the new tool, based on data provided by American Heart Association, reframes the risk as an age—making it easier to understand just how much stress your heart is under.
The tool asks you to enter your sex, age, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, whether or not you have diabetes, and if you take medication for blood pressure or statins.
It also requires you to input your eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate) which is used to measure how well your kidneys are functioning.
In the current study, researchers tested the age calculator on more than 14,000 US adults aged 30 to 79 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination survey, between 2011 and 2020.
Using this data, it then generates your ‘heart age’—and it might be older, or younger, than you.
Dr Sadiya Khan, a cardiology professor at Northwestern University and lead author of the study, said: ‘Many people who should be on medicine to lower their risk of heart attack, stroke or heart failure are not.
‘We hope this new age calculator will help support discussions about prevention and ultimately improve health for all people.’
None of the participants had history of cardiovascular disease.
On average, they found that women had a biological heart age four years older than their actual age.
For men, the results were more severe. Despite having an average chronological age of just under 50-years-old, the test suggested their hearts resembled that of a 56-year-old.
And among men who did not complete college or sixth form the prognosis was even bleaker, with nearly a third of this group having a heart age more than ten years older than their actual age.
Researchers found that most US adults have a heart age several years older than their chronological age
This pattern—where there was a significant discordance between biological and chronological age—was most prevalent in Black and Hispanic adults.
Writing in the journal JAMA cardiology, the researchers concluded: ‘The important thing is that we have very good options available in our tool box to help slow that aging down if we can identify it.
Dr Khan added: ‘This may be even more important in younger people who don’t often think about their risk for heart disease.’
The researchers now plan to study whether presenting risk in terms of age to patients improves outcomes and helps people better understand the need for preventative treatment.
Alarming data last year revealed that premature deaths from cardiovascular problems generally, such as heart attacks and strokes, had hit their highest level in more than a decade.
Daily Mail has previously highlighted how the number of young people, under 40, in England being treated for heart attacks by the NHS is on the rise.
Cases of heart attacks, heart failure and strokes among the under-75s had tumbled since the 1960s thanks to plummeting smoking rates, advanced surgical techniques and breakthroughs such as stents and statins.
But now, other factors such as slow ambulance response times for category 2 calls in England — which includes suspected heart attacks and strokes — as well as long waits for tests and treatment have also been blamed.
