Is Your Heart Age Older Than You Are?

With every trip around the sun, we get another year older. But did you know that your heart’s age may be outpacing the rest of your body?

Heart age can be used to assess the risk of heart attack or stroke based on health factors. These include weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, and lifestyle choices like diet, exercise, and smoking. The younger your heart age, the lower your risk for heart disease. Your heart’s age can reveal your longevity. The lower your heart age, the lower your risks for heart disease, heart attack, or other cardiac conditions.

According to a 2015 report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), three out of four adults have a heart age older than their actual age. The average heart age of adult men exceeds their chronological age by eight years. Women’s hearts outpace their age by five years. Notably, African American men and women are disproportionately affected, with their hearts aging an average of 11 years beyond their chronological age.

What Affects Heart Age?

A variety of factors can influence heart age.

• Chronological age: In most of us, blood vessels begin to stiffen and plaque narrows our arteries at about age 55. The degree varies depending on factors such as genetics, lifestyle, and overall health. As the years pass, these conditions progress, increasing our risk for heart disease.
• Gender: Men tend to develop heart disease 7-10 years earlier than women because estrogen provides females with protection until they reach menopause. After menopause, women develop heart disease at about the same rate as men.
• Family history: The possibility of developing cardiovascular problems is higher if your biological father or brother was diagnosed before 55 or your birth mother or sister before 65.
• Race: Research shows that Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to develop heart disease than whites. These differences may be related to higher rates of hypertension and uncontrolled hypertension, socioeconomic factors that lead to disparities in diabetes and obesity, and lack of access to quality health care.
• Blood pressure: Blood pressure over 120/80 mmHg makes your heart age faster because it works harder to pump blood.
• Cholesterol: High cholesterol ages the heart prematurely, and leads to the development of plaque buildup in the heart arteries.
• Smoking: Even occasional smoking will harm your heart. The same is true for secondhand smoke.
• Weight: Being overweight or obese puts extra stress on your heart.
• Diabetes: Diabetes and prediabetes increase your risk for heart problems.

8 Ways to Manage Your Heart Age

While some risk factors, like gender and family history, are out of your control, there are still many steps you can take to manage and even reduce your heart age. The American Heart Association (AHA) has developed a list called Life’s Essential 8. The list outlines healthy behaviors and factors you can work on to lower your heart age and the health risk.

Life’s Essential 8

1. Diet: Eat a diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy, and lean proteins, such as poultry, fish, beans, and nuts. Avoid trans-fat, fatty meats, fried foods, and sugary foods and drinks. The DASH diet and the Mediterranean diets are recommended for heart health.
2. Activity: AHA recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, or activity that increases your heart and breathing rate, but you can still carry on a conversation. An alternative is 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity each week, where speaking during exercise becomes difficult.
3. Quit tobacco: Smoking cigarettes, vaping, or using e-cigarettes can increase blood pressure and cause damage to blood vessels. It can cause shortness of breath. Tobacco use also increases your chances of developing lung cancer and other pulmonary diseases.
4. Sleep: Adults over 18 who do not get seven to nine hours of sleep nightly tend to have higher blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Poor sleep habits also lower metabolism, leading to weight gain and obesity.
5. Weight: While genetics play a role in obesity, lifestyle choices, such as eating unhealthy foods and being sedentary, play a larger role. Controlling portion size, choosing healthy foods and being more active can help reduce your weight.
6. Cholesterol: High cholesterol can lead to increased cardiovascular inflammation, which increases plaque in the heart’s arteries. Your body manufactures cholesterol, but you also get it in your diet. Reducing saturated fats and carbohydrates and eating more vegetables and lean meats can help decrease cholesterol and damage.
7. Blood sugar: Elevated blood sugar not only leads to diabetes, but it can damage the arteries in your heart, brain, eyes, and kidneys. Reducing blood sugar by limiting refined sugars, carbohydrates (bread, pasta, rice), and sugary drinks can slow heart aging.
8. Blood pressure: High blood pressure can strain the arteries and heart, leading to heart failure, stroke, and heart attacks. In addition to medications, you can help control blood pressure with increased activity, maintaining a healthy weight, and heart-healthy eating, especially by reducing salt intake.

Calculating Your Heart’s Age

Talking to your health care provider about your health history and lifestyle factors can help them get an idea of whether your heart is aging faster than the rest of you and determine your overall risk for heart disease.

If you want to calculate your heart age at home, a couple of tools are available to help you do so.

This calculator, developed by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, considers more factors in determining cardiovascular risk. It’s important to remember that such calculators may not be perfect and do not replace the advice of your health care provider.

When to Talk to Your Health Care Provider About Your Heart

Your risk factors for cardiovascular and other diseases should be an ongoing topic of discussion with your provider. Having an annual physical will help create a health history that the two of you can monitor for changes and use to prevent or control chronic conditions and other diseases. But it’s also crucial to pay attention to any changes in your body that may indicate a problem.

If you develop any of the following symptoms, contact a doctor immediately:

• Shortness of breath
• Swelling in your legs
• Chest pain
• Unexplained fatigue
• Sudden change in how much you can exercise
• Heart palpitations
• Confusion
• Dizziness

Even changing a few habits, like choosing fruit for dessert instead of pastry, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or parking at the far end of the grocery store parking lot instead of hunting for the closest spot, can make a difference in your health. Start with one or two changes and then add others as time passes. Gradual progress can keep you young—and healthy—at heart!