Is you heart aging faster than your actual age? – Deseret News

You know how many birthdays you’ve had. But how old is your heart?

Most U.S. adults have a “heart age” that’s older than they are, often by quite a bit, based on wear and tear, heart disease and lifestyle, according to research led by Northwestern Medicine. The study is published in the journal JAMA Cardiology.

Northwestern University has created a free online tool that calculates how your heart compares to your chronological age and risk for heart disease, using health data like cholesterol levels, smoking status, blood pressure and whether you have diabetes. They make a point, however, of noting it’s not intended to replace doctor visits and that you should use it in consultation with a doctor.

Calculating heart disease risk

Heart disease risk has typically been presented as a percentage, according to a news release from Northwestern. “For example, a health care clinician may tell a patient, ‘eight out of 100 people with your profile may have a heart event in the next 10 years.’”

The calculator is based on the American Heart Association’s prediction tool called PREVENT, which stands for “Predicting Risk of cardiovascular EVENTs.” Updated in 2023 and findings published in the journal Circulation, the tool has been hailed for its “race-free” approach and ability to indicate risk for cardiovascular disease and events, thus hopefully heading both off, per a different Northwestern Medicine article.

The new calculator doesn’t offer a risk percentage, but rather an age, which could be easier for the average patient to understand, its developers said.

“We hope this tool helps doctors and patients discuss risk for heart disease more effectively so we can better inform what therapies can prevent heart attacks, stroke or heart failure events from ever happening,” senior author Dr. Sadiya Khan, professor of cardiovascular epidemiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, who led development of the PREVENT equations, said in a written statement.

Developing a tool

The researchers tested the age calculator on more than 14,000 nationally representative U.S. adults between the ages of 30 and 79. They were all participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2011 and 2020. None of them had a history of heart disease.

Northwestern noted that the women had an average heart age of 55.4 compared to the chronological age of 51.3. The gap was wider for men, who had an average heart age of 56.7 compared to the average chronological age of 49.7.

The gap was bigger based on educational attainment and by race. Men who had graduated from high school or less had a heart age a decade older than their actual age. The hearts of Black men were, on average, 8.5 years older than the actual age. Hispanic men’s hearts were 7.9 years older, Asian men’s hearts were 6.7 years older and white men had hearts that were 6.4 years older than their actual age. All of those are on average.

Among women, the gaps were 6.2 years older for Black women, 4.8 years older for Hispanic women, 3.7 years older for white women and 2.8 years older for Asian women.

The Washington Post noted that “the calculator is at the vanguard of ‘organ aging’ tests, which use a variety of advanced techniques and algorithms to determine whether certain parts of our bodies are aging faster or slower than others. Most of these tests are still in early development. The heart-age calculator is one of the first to be widely available and free.”

Heart disease and young adults

Prevention of heart disease is key, the researchers said, and it should start at young ages.

“The important thing is that we have very good options available in our toolbox to help slow that aging down if we can identify it. This may be even more important in younger people who don’t often think about their risk for heart disease,” Khan added.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and has been for decades. Khan said that’s because many people who would benefit from prevention tools like medications to lower the risk of heart attack or stroke are not on them.

Khan said researchers plan to study whether presenting risk with the new calculator bolsters prevention efforts and understanding. They also hope the tool will spark needed conversations about heart health.

Khan told the Post that a year or two difference in actual age and heart age probably doesn’t mean much, but people whose hearts clock in at five or 10 years older should be paying attention and doing something about it.

Martha Gulati, director of preventive cardiology and associate director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, told the Post the calculation leaves out some heart risk factors for women, including menopausal changes and pregnancy complications.

Others point out that exercise and aerobic fitness matter to heart health, too, and are not included in the calculations.

In an editorial in the journal that featured the new study, Drs. Mohammad Al Mouslmani, Abdulla Damluji, and Michael Nanna wrote that a calculator could have good or not-so-good effects.

“While a higher biological age may motivate some individuals to adopt healthier behaviors, others may find such information demoralizing or overwhelming, especially those with fewer resources or competing life demands. Public health messaging and clinician communication should be sensitive to these dynamics, ensuring that risk age is framed not as a verdict, but as an opportunity for change, supported by accessible interventions.”

If you check out the new online heart age tool, you need to know some basic numbers, like your total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, blood pressure and estimated glomerular filtration rate, which looks at kidney function.