Cardiac biological age (heart age, cardiovascular age) is the age to which your cardiovascular system "pulls" given your risk factors. Formally it is the age of a person with ideal values who has the same calculated 10-year risk of heart attack and atherosclerosis as you.
The indicator turns dry risk percentages into an understandable figure: if your heart is "older" than your passport by 5–10 years, that is a clear signal to take up prevention.
What heart age shows
The tool takes your risk factors — blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking, diabetes, body mass index — and converts them into an equivalent age. If the heart age is higher than the chronological one, your risk profile is worse than that of most peers.
The idea came from the Framingham study and the QRISK algorithm: they calculate the 10-year risk and compare it with the risk of a person of the same sex but with ideal values.
How it is calculated
There are three approaches. The first is by the Framingham scale (sex, age, blood pressure, total cholesterol and HDL, smoking, diabetes). The second is by the British QRISK model, which also takes into account ethnicity, BMI and family history. The third is instrumental: echocardiography data are used to assess the structure and function of the heart.
All methods give a guide for a conversation with your doctor, not a final diagnosis.
If the heart is "older" than the passport
The good news: heart age is largely reversible. Quitting smoking, controlling blood pressure and cholesterol (with statins if needed), losing weight and regular aerobic exercise lower the calculated risk and, with it, the heart age. A related concept is vascular age, which reflects the condition of the arteries themselves.
Calculate using this marker
Calculators where Heart biological age is used directly:
Frequently asked questions
Are heart age and vascular age the same thing?
Close but not identical concepts. Heart age is calculated from risk factors and the probability of a heart attack, whereas vascular age reflects the stiffness and condition of the arteries themselves (for example, from pulse wave velocity).
Can the heart be "rejuvenated"?
The calculated heart age decreases with quitting smoking, normalizing blood pressure and cholesterol, losing weight and regular exercise. Structural changes are only partly reversible, but the risk drops noticeably.