Your ‘Heart Age’ May Predict Heart Attack and Stroke Risk—How To Calculate Yours
Plus see doctor-recommended tips to lower your heart age and improve your health
While certain health metrics such as your resting heart rate or cholesterol levels may change over time, age alone doesn’t provide a complete picture of your wellbeing. For example, you might assume a 20-year-old’s heart is in better shape than a 50-year-old’s, but that is not always the case. Now, new research shows your “heart age” could clue you into risk factors for heart disease—and your ticker may actually be functioning as if it were older than its years. We spoke to experts to learn more about what heart age is, how to determine yours and how you can lower it if it’s higher than it should be.
What is heart age?
“Heart age is an estimate of how old your heart and blood vessels are,” says Leonard J Pianko MD, PA, FACC, Cardiologist at Aventura Cardiovascular Center. “It takes into account your risks versus your actual age. The higher your heart age score is, the greater the chance that you will have a heart attack or stroke.”
Curious what your heart age is? You’ll need some stats from a recent physical and bloodwork to determine your reading. Then you’ll plug the info into a free online tool called the PREVENT Risk Age Calculator created by researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Woman's World Answers
“PREVENT is an acronym for Predicting Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Events,” says Dr. Pianko. “This tool estimates your 10-year cardiovascular risk using an inclusive and accurate set of risk factors.”
It takes into account factors like your cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, smoking history, use of antihypertensive medications or statins as well as your estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), a measure of kidney function.
What your heart age reveals about your health
A new JAMA Cardiology study used the American Heart Association’s PREVENT equations to calculate heart age. Researchers found the average heart age for women was 55.4 years even though their average actual age was 51.3 years, and the average heart age for men was 56.7 years compared with an average actual age of 49.7 years.
“When it comes to the heart risk age gap between men and women, there are several factors to consider,” says Mike Sevilla, MD, Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the Northeast Ohio Medical University. “The PREVENT calculator includes metrics like sex, age, cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes and smoking status. Many studies have shown, and I’ve also seen in my patients, that men generally have less healthy lifestyles than women—being more sedentary, more obese, exercising less, smoking more and seeking medical attention less often.”
A 10-year difference can signal heart problems
The study also found that 16 percent of women and 26 percent of men had a heart age more than 10 years older than their actual age.
“A 10-year gap is a major red flag and indicates a markedly elevated cardiovascular risk, meaning your risk of a stroke or heart attack is much higher,” says Dr. Pianko. “It may also be a sign that damage has already occurred and the need for intervention is greater.”
Among people with a high school education or less, 23 percent of women and 33 percent of men had a heart age more than 10 years older than their actual age.
“The 10-year gap is more common among individuals with less education and lower financial status for several reasons,” says Dr. Pianko. “Healthy food is expensive, so lower-income families may gravitate towards fast food, thereby increasing their risk factors. Additionally, individuals with less education may face access barriers, such as navigating the insurance system. Less education can also mean a lack of understanding of the role played by risk factors as well as lifestyle choices.”
How to lower your heart age
If you calculate your heart age and find it’s higher than your actual age, don’t panic. Dr. Pianko says there are several ways you can help lower it and reduce your risk of heart disease:
- Adopt a healthier diet: You can do it “by incorporating lean proteins, vegetables and healthy fats and avoiding excess salt and sugar,” says Dr. Pianko. “This will lower your ‘bad’ cholesterol level, reduce the risk of diabetes and improve your blood pressure.”
- Get more physical activity: “The recommended amount is 7,000 steps a day or 150 minutes of aerobic exercise, which lowers your blood pressure, reduces weight gain and boosts your ‘good’ HDL cholesterol,” says Dr. Pianko.
- Quit smoking: “Smoke can damage your blood vessels and increase your risk of lung cancer,” says Dr. Pianko.
- Advocate for your health: Sad but true: “Male cardiologists often dismiss the symptoms of female patients,” says Dr. Pianko. “If you are experiencing symptoms that are unfamiliar to your body, push to find the cause.”
Set up a sleep routine: Do this “by going to sleep [at] the same time each night and waking up around the same time each morning to keep your cardiovascular system in balance,” says Dr. Pianko.
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