One in 10 men has heart a decade older than them, warns Public Health England

(Daily Telegraph) — Fifty is the new sixty for ten per cent of middle-aged men whose poor lifestyle has left them with a heart that is a decade older than their actual age, Public Health England has warned.

In 2015 the National Health Service launched its Heart Age Test to help people discover if they were at risk of heart attack and stroke.

New analysis of the results from 1.2 million middle-aged men who took the test showed that one-in-10 50-year-olds has the heart of a 60-year-old man, suggesting they could die a decade earlier than they should.

The problem is worse for men than women. Of those found to have hearts which were 10 years older than their actual age, only 36 per cent were women. The majority, 64 per cent, were men.

Every month, 7,400 people die from heart disease or stroke. A quarter of deaths are of people under 75 but most of those could be prevented by lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, and living a healthier lifestyle.

Cardiovascular disease, which includes heart attack and stroke, declining in recent years is still the main cause of death amongst men and the second highest cause of death in women. (…)