Latest news with #Sadiya Khan
The Sun
01-08-2025
- Health
- The Sun
New 10-question test reveals if your heart is ageing faster than your body – and if you need to take action now
DID you know your heart could age quicker than the rest of your body? Many adults' hearts are up to a decade older than their chronological age, putting them at risk of heart attack, stroke and heart failure, scientists have warned. Calculating your "heart age" doesn't sound particularly doable for most without specialised equipment, but researchers from Northwestern University have put together a free online tool that does just that. Using routine health data such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels and whether you have diabetes or smoke, the 10-question quiz can calculate your heart age based on risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Being a smoker and having cholesterol, diabetes or high blood pressure can all make heart health issues more likely. Traditionally, heart disease risk is calculated as a percentage. For example, your doctor may say 'eight out of 100 people with your profile may have a heart event in the next 10 years". Researchers wanted to find a less abstract and more relatable way to convey the risk of heart disease. The new online calculator - which used criteria from the American Heart Association - hopes to make heart disease risk easier to understand by reframing it as heart age. Dr Sadiya Khan, the Magerstadt professor of cardiovascular epidemiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, who led the development of the tool, said: 'Many people who should be on medicine to lower their risk for heart attack, stroke or heart failure are not on these medications. '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." But researchers stressed that the quiz shouldn't replace medical care and advised people use it in consultation with a doctor. High blood pressure, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes are all dubbed 'silent killers' - should we really be that worried? Dr Khan and her team put the tool to the test using data from more 14,000 "nationally representative" US adults, aged between 30 to 79. All participants had no prior history of CVD. On average, they found that women had a heart age of 55.4, compared to a chronological age of 51.3. Men had a wider gap, with an average heart age of 56.7 compared to an average chronological age of 49.7. How to reduce your risk of heart attacks and stroke You can reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke with many of the same methods. Heart attacks and strokes, although affecting different organs of the body, are both what we call cardiovascular events. Both arise from similar underlying conditions, such as atherosclerosis —a buildup of fatty deposits in the arteries. According to the American Heart Association, the risk factors for heart attacks and strokes are largely the same: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, obesity, physical inactivity and diabetes. Therefore, addressing these risk factors can simultaneously reduce the risk of both conditions. Here are ways you can prevent the two: Healthy diet More fruit and veg: The DASH, which emphasises fruit, vegetables, whole grains and lean proteins, has been shown to reduce blood pressure and improve heart health. Less fats: Too much saturated and trans fats can raise cholesterol levels and increase the risk of atherosclerosis. Go for healthier fats like those found in olive oil, nuts, and avocados. Limit salt: High salt intake is linked to high blood pressure, a major risk factor for both heart attack and stroke. The NHS recommends no more than 6g of salt per day for adults. Fibre: Foods high in soluble fibre, such as oats and beans, can help lower cholesterol levels. Exercise Walking, running, cycling, swimming - whatever you like, do it! Aerobic exercise can strengthen the heart and improve circulation. The NHS advises at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity each week. Strength training exercises can help control weight, improve cholesterol levels, and reduce blood pressure. It is recommended twice a week by the NHS. Manage blood pressure Healthy diet and exercise can help keep your blood pressure in check. But it is worth monitoring it yourself after the age of 40, at least, when the NHS invites adults for a check-up every five years. High blood pressure often has no symptoms but significantly increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. Quit smoking One of the best ways to quit smoking is to use resources provided by NHS Smokefree. Support groups, medications, and other tools to help quit smoking such as vapes could be what you need to kick the habit for good - and it's free. Limit booze Excessive alcohol consumption can increase blood pressure and contribute to weight gain, which can snowball and become a heart health risk. The NHS recommends not regularly drinking more than 14 units of alcohol per week. Nearly a third of men who'd left school at 16 or earlier had a heart age more than 10 years older than their actual age. Black and Hispanic were also more likely to have older hearts. Dr Khan said the heart age calculator could be particularly useful for younger adults who either want to get a head start with protecting their ticker or might need to be on preventative medication. Heart disease is one of the biggest killers worldwide. There are over 7.6 million people living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK, with numbers projected to rise in the next couple of decades. They cause more than 170,000 deaths a year, according to the British Heart Foundation - that works out to about 480 a day. How to use the tool - and when to be concerned Dr Khan told that the heart age tool can be used as a "forecast" someone's risk of CVD over the next decade. While "it's probably not that meaningful if your age is off by one or two years", she said, the authors recommend getting concerned if the gap is five years or more. If you're seeing a large gap between your heart and actual age, this "likely points to worsening cardiovascular disease risk", even if you're young. 'The important thing is that we have very good options available in our toolbox to help slow that ageing down if we can identify it," Dr Khan noted. "This may be even more important in younger people who don't often think about their risk for heart disease." If your heart age is actually lower than your chronological age - what Dr Khan called the "the Holy Grail" - that's likely thanks to genetics. She suggested using the tool as motivation to boost your heart health, whatever your score. If you're a smoker, quitting the habit is a good place to start, as reducing your consumption of saturated fat if you have high cholesterol, and trying to keep your blood pressure in check. The Northwestern research team now plan to study whether presenting heart disease risk as an age improves outcomes and helps people better understand their need for preventive therapies.
Medscape
30-07-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Your Heart May Be Older Than You Think
Some people are said to have old souls. Some may have old hearts, too. Many Americans, particularly men with less education, lower income, and those from certain minority groups, have a 'heart age' that is much older than what the calendar may indicate, according to a new tool developed by researchers at Northwestern University and published on July 30 in JAMA Cardiology . Sadiya Khan, MD, a cardiologist at Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, in Chicago, and her colleagues wanted to simplify how clinicians communicate cardiovascular risk to patients, making it easier to interpret and understand. 'It's really important that risk is used in how we manage patients in preventive cardiology, but it can be really challenging to interpret the results,' she said. 'What does a 7.5% 10-year risk mean, for example?' Khan and her colleagues developed a tool to calculates a person's 'heart age' based on known cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, and smoking status. A 50-year-old with several high-risk factors could have a heart age that is equivalent to a 65-year-old with an optimal risk profile — a revelation that may help prompt them to take action on reducing their risk, Shah said. Risk age calculations are not new — the European Society of Cardiology's 2021 guidelines on prevention of cardiovascular disease allow such predictions, and they were also developed for the Framingham risk model. But Khan wanted to update the concept using the newer American Heart Association's PREVENT equations, and to take advantage of the growing public awareness of healthy aging. To evaluate the tool Khan's team tested it on more than 14,000 US adults aged 30-79 with no history of cardiovascular disease, using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. On average, women in the survey had a chronological age of 51.3 years, but a heart age of 55.4 years, whereas for men the disparity was even greater: an average chronological age of 49.7 years but an average heart age of 56.7 years. Socioeconomic factors, such as education and income, also had a big effect on heart age. Among those with a high school education or less, more than one fifth of women, and nearly one third of men, had a heart age more than 10 years older than their true age. The gap was also significantly wider among members of certain racial and ethnic minorities. Black men had a heart age 8.5 years older than their true age vs 7.9 years older for Hispanic men, 6.7 years older for Asian men, and 6.4 years older for White men. The gaps were 6.2 years for Black women, 4.8 years for Hispanic women, 3.7 years for White women, and 2.8 years for Asian women, according to the researchers. 'I think some of the social factors that we highlighted where an individual's heart age might be older than their actual age, while not surprising, are helpful to see the health of the nation,' Khan said. The authors of an editorial accompanying the journal article wrote the new tool 'reframes risk in a more intuitive, personally relevant way' and combines epidemiology with behavioral psychology. 'This strategy taps into an intuitive grasp of time and aging, a concept more emotionally salient than a probabilistic 10-year risk estimate and may help bridge the persistent gap between knowledge of risk and engagement in health-promoting behavior,' they wrote. Presenting risk in this way could be particularly useful for younger people, whose lower absolute risk means they seldom think about ways they can improve their cardiovascular health, according to Khan and her colleagues. The team has created a free online version of the heart age calculator, but Khan said it is intended to be used in consultation with a physician. 'Our goal is not to have this be patient-facing but to have it be targeted to clinicians to help support that patient-clinician discussion,' she said. 'A tool like this is only as useful as the conversation that follows about the opportunities to promote or maintain heart health in optimizing your heart age.' Khan reported no relevant financial conflicts of interest.
