Remember the old song "Young at Heart"? The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is saying your heart is not as young as you think it is.
The CDC has issued a report that estimates the average "heart age" of men and women in every state, based on risk factors like high blood pressure, obesity, and whether they smoke or have diabetes. Then it compared the numbers to average actual ages in those areas.
The results should not be dear to anyone's heart. Nearly three out of four American adults have a heart that's older than their age, according to the CDC. On average for men, the predicted heart age was nearly 8 years older than their chronological age. For women on average, it was about 5.5 years older.
One in two men has a heart age 5 or more years older than their actual age and two in five women have a heart age 5 or more years older than their actual age, the CDC states. These estimates were specific to adults 30 to 74 who have not had a heart attack or stroke.
This is the first study to give estimates of heart age. CDC researchers used information from the Framingham Heart Study to determine heart age based on data on blood pressure levels, smoking, diabetes status, and body mass index as an indicator of obesity for different areas of the country.
"Because so many U.S. adults don't understand their cardiovascular disease risk, they are missing out on early opportunities to prevent future heart attacks or strokes," said Barbara A. Bowman, Ph.D., director of CDC's Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. "About three in four heart attacks and strokes are due to risk factors that increase heart age, so it's important to continue focusing on efforts to improve heart health and increase access to early and affordable detection and treatment resources nationwide."
One in every four deaths in the United States is due to heart disease, primarily from heart attacks and strokes. The death rate due to heart disease has been falling due to advances in prevention and treatment, including drugs to control blood pressure and to lower cholesterol, but the CDC believes that helping people know their heart age might help them reduce risk factors even further.
You can read more at http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/.