20-05-2025
How to Measure The Exact Age of Your Heart, According to Cardiologists
You (probably) know how old you are. But do you know the functional age of your heart? That number isn't quite as simple as counting the number of birthdays you've had.
Various lifestyle factors can age your heart, while others help keep it young and healthy. For example, a 60-year-old who exercises and follows the Mediterranean diet could have the heart of a 40-year-old. Conversely, a sedentary 35-year-old who only eats ultra-processed foods may have a heart that's closer to 50.🩺SIGN UP for tips to stay healthy & fit with the top moves, clean eats, health trends & more delivered right to your inbox twice a week💊Not sure how old your heart is? Good news: You don't have to guess anymore. Scientists have identified an ingenious way to measure it, and it's so simple you can find out today—or at least this week. Related:
According to a recent study published in the journal Open Heart, getting an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) can help identify the functional age of someone's heart. It can also reveal how certain unhealthy habits and health conditions age your heart by decades, the study authors the study, doctors around the world collected MRI scans from 557 people: 191 were healthy and 366 had chronic health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and/or obesity. The MRI type for the study used cardiac magnetic resonance and measured various factors, including the size and strength of the heart chambers. Using these measurements, the researchers applied a formula to estimate the heart's 'functional age." This refers to how old the heart acts, rather than a person's actual age.
'Our new MRI approach doesn't just count your birthdays. It measures how well your heart is holding up," explains , a cardiologist at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and lead study author. 'This is a game-changer for keeping hearts healthier, longer."Related:
People who followed a healthy lifestyle had heart ages that closely matched their chronological age.
Meanwhile, those with chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and/or irregular heartbeats tended to have hearts that aged faster than they did. For example, a 50-year-old with high blood pressure might have a heart functioning like that of a 55-year-old.
'Imagine finding out that your heart is 'older' than you are," says Dr. Garg. For people with conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes or obesity, this is often the case."That being said, a cardiac MRI scan is only one proposed method for measuring heart health. According to Dr. Cheng-Han Chen, MD, an interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center, who was not involved in the study, said there is, technically, no one universal "definition" of heart age."Much more research will be necessary before we know whether this particular method can provide clinically useful prognostic information," he explains. "We are still in the early stages of understanding how best to determine a 'heart age', and how such a calculation would help us better take care of patients."Related:
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, and it's also a top cause of death for men. Some people experience no symptoms until it's too late, discovering only after the fact that their hearts have already sustained serious damage.
Measuring your heart's age gives doctors a powerful tool to identify risk early and before it progresses into more dangerous or irreversible complications.
"People with health issues like diabetes or obesity often have hearts that are aging faster than they should, sometimes by decades," Dr. Garg explains. "This could help doctors step in early to stop heart disease in its tracks."
Dr. Chen adds other reliable methods for estimating your heart's age, including biomarkers like blood pressure, height and weight. Amassing such a detailed report of your heart might be the wake-up call people need to take their health seriously, before they enter their later years with a long list of preventable at the end of the day, graceful aging starts from within.
Up Next:Cardiac MRI Markers of Ageing: A Multicentre, Cross-sectional Cohort Study. Open Heart.
Pankaj Garg is an associate professor of cardiology at the University of East Anglia and a consultant cardiologist at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
Cheng-Han Chen, MD, is an interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center.
About Women and Heart Disease. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
