Healthy Lifestyle Habits Could Help Prevent Premature Heart Aging

Healthy Lifestyle Habits Could Help Prevent. In an attempt to predict complications like heart disease, cardiologists are working toward a new method to assess the heart’s functional age and measure its aging rate.

Researchers say overwhelmed doctors’ visits can lead to heartaches and even premature aging of the heart.

Regular exercise and a health-specific diet help lower the heart’s functional age.

Measuring heart age rather than chronological age is an emerging focus of interest among cardiologists, researchers, and even physicians.

The assessment of functional heart age may serve as a straightforward indicator of overall heart health. It can also elucidate existing risks to heart health that are chosen voluntarily as a result of easily accessible lifestyle changes.

 Dr. Pankaj Garg from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, along with researchers from the University of East Anglia, has come up with a new approach in which the functional heart age can be measured using cardiac MRI scans, which he claims could assist in earlier detection of heart diseases.

The results of the study were published on the 2nd of May in the European Heart Journal and have already received a lot of attention by the researchers who called it ‘a game-changer’.

Head of the research, Dr. Pankaj Garg, who is also a consultant cardiologist, stated, “For the general population, it is observed that heart age is close to chronological age. However, heart-age of patients suffering from diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and atrial fibrillation was much more concerning.” As an example, he shares: “A 50-year-old suffering from high blood pressure might, in reality, have a heart aging equivalent to mid-fifties. People suffering from diabetes or obesity tend to have their heart ticking much faster than their age for decades,” Garg further explained.

Dr. Garg further explained that, “this observation can allow physicians to prevent the disease before there are any overt signs.”

‘Functional heart age’ vs. biological age

Chronological age is said to misalign with functional or biological age by Jayne Morgan, a cardiologist with Hello Heart. She commented saying that “the aging process is uneven throughout one’s life span.”

For other researchers not involved in the study, Cheng-Han Chen, medical director of the Structural Heart Program at Memorial Care Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA, noted that there is no marketing consensus on the definition of “heart age.”

“This research is a good first step towards evaluating whether an imaging-based assessment of ‘heart age’ can provide clinically useful prognostic information,” Chen further commented to Healthline make it Healthy Lifestyle Habits.

In an attempt to calculate the body’s functional heart age, researchers firstly checked how much blood was left in the left atrium after contraction. They also studied the amount of blood that was ejected from the left atrium with every heartbeat.

The method was confirmed with use of 366 heart patients with available risk factors.

Compared to a healthy control group, participants with high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and atrial fibrillation were much older than the expected average heart age.

“By finding out your heart’s true age, you can then work to keep it young, with diet, exercise or medical treatment to decrease your heart age, and keep it low enough to minimize your risk of heart disease,” Garg said in the news release.

“It could also be that people need a wake-up call, to take better care of themselves, exercise more, eat better or even listening to their doctor. It’s providing people with a fighting chance against heart disease,” he said.

Aging Signs of heart 

 As people age, common heart changes

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 may occur, even among healthy individuals with no prior history of heart problems.
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 The heart may, for instance, begin to skip a beat or begin to beat more frequently. This is not generally a problem unless it becomes persistent.  If the heart is frequently racing or fluttering it may be a sign of arrhythmia.

The ventricles and auricles, the heart’s chambers, may also enlarge with age.  They can hold less blood as their walls get thicker.

 Particularly in older adults, the risk of stroke rises in tandem with the risk of arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation (AFib).

 In a similar vein, the valves that regulate blood flow between the heart’s chambers may thicken and stiffen, thereby restricting blood flow.

 Furthermore, fluid accumulation in the legs, abdomen, or lungs can be caused by heart valve leaks.

What causes premature heart aging?

• Why does the heart age so quickly?
• The new study suggests that individuals with specific medical conditions may be more susceptible to early heart aging also get Healthy Lifestyle Habits.
•  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that four typical factors
•  The following reliable sources could cause early heart aging:
•  High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, makes it more difficult for the heart to pump blood throughout the body.  The lower left chamber, or lower left ventricle, may thicken and enlarge as a result, raising the risk of heart attacks and heart failure.
•  Diabetes: Studies have shown that elevated blood sugar can harm the heart’s blood vessels, causing fatty deposits to accumulate there.  It is linked to an increased risk of heart disease.
•  High LDL cholesterol can reduce blood flow to the heart, brain, kidneys, and other parts of the body by causing a waxy, fat-like substance called plaque to accumulate in arteries.
•  Obesity: Excessive LDL cholesterol and hypertension have been associated with obesity.

How to Keep Your Heart Young

 Currently, there’s no exact method to measure exactly how old your heart is, but the Australia Heart Foundation offers an online Heart Age Calculator. This tool can give you a quick estimate of your heart’s age. “We’re still figuring out the best way to determine a ‘heart age’ and how knowing this can help us look after our health better,” said Chen. To maintain a healthy and youthful heart, it’s beneficial to follow the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 guidelines. These guidelines focus on lifestyle choices that significantly impact heart health. Let’s explore how different lifestyle factors can influence the health of your heart.