It doesn't follow that when your age is young, so is your heart.
Many people often rely on this belief and suffer the consequences of it. Only too late to realize, they have already been crippled by it.
Now, there's a tool that can help predict how old or young your heart is and if it has chances of developing heart ailments in the future, thanks to the determination and dedication of the Joint British Societies.
The study, titled "Consensus Recommendations for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease," reveals a tool that can be used to look into risks and possible heart ailments. The study appeared in the Heart journal on Wednesday.
The tool, called JBS3 Risk Calculator, has been created mainly for the use of physicians and other practitioners in the healthcare industry.
"The JBS3 Risk Calculator with its new measures and communication tools aims to empower patients to make appropriate decisions about their lifestyle and drug treatments based on a better understanding of their personal cardiovascular disease (CVD) risks," says JBS3 in its website.
Of course, doubts are part of the game.
"The first question we always get is, 'Is the calculator going to mean more statins?' NO, it's not! It's about giving statins to the right people at the right time, rather than just giving more people statins," John Deanfield, one of the study authors and the director of Cardiovascular Prevention at UCLPartners, revealed.
The calculator instead shows you how to delay the chances of getting heart ailments and predicts life expectancy before a stroke or heart attack. It also assists general practitioners and clinicians to address questions for their patients such as when and why should I start cardiovascular disease risk reduction, among others.
The calculator takes into account several contributing factors such as blood pressure, lifestyle, cholesterol level and possibly other medical issues that could affect your heart. Lifestyle pertains to habits such as exercise, smoking and even dietary habits.
Deanfield also disclosed they have often been asked why hasn't everybody been doing this. And said that the society is more reactive than proactive.
"It's because in our culture we're taught to treat problems, not design strategies for preventing disease. This is not to say that's ineffective - it can help a bit. But it's a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. By the time you start pills, it's very late. We're trying to turn the clock back. Wouldn't be more sensible to target disease in its evolution over many years? That's the cultural change we want to produce," Deanfield explained.
Authors said, most heart risk calculations are only short-term, or 10-year term, but there's a need to look at a longer or lifetime term as well.
"By only using short term risk estimates, which are heavily dependent on age and gender, younger subjects and women tend to be overlooked even if they have substantially elevated risk factors that can be changed (such as smoking), and are consequently at high lifetime risk. Evidence shows that early lifestyle interventions and, where necessary, drug treatment can decrease or slow down CVD and thereby the risk of future CVD events, such as heart attack or stroke. This change to 'lifetime risk' represents an opportunity for investment in future cardiovascular health," the JBS3 website explains.
The Joint British Societies include British Cardiovascular Society, British Heart Foundation, British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention & Rehabilitation, British Association for Nursing in Cardiovascular Care, British Renal Society, Association of British Clinical Diabetologists, British Hypertension Society, Diabetes UK, Stroke Association, HEART UK and Renal Association.
