How do you work out my BMI Heart Age?
Your BMI Heart age has been included in your report to give you an indication of your Heart Age in Comparison to your actual/chronological age.
Your BMI Heart Age is similar to your Lipid Heart Age however instead of using your cholesterol results in the algorithm the BMI Heart age uses your BMI.
A lower heart age indicates that your risk of cardiovascular disease is less. For health, we should all be aiming to have a BMI Heart Age that is lower than our actual age.
The following metrics are included in the algorithm that calculates your BMI Heart Age:
Sex, Age, Systolic Blood Pressure, History of treatment for Hypertension/High Blood Pressure, History of treatment for Diabetes, Current Smoker/Non-smoker, your Body Mass Index (BMI).
Who developed the BMI Heart Age?
The BMI Heart Age was developed by the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute in USA. The algorithm specifically comes from the largest longitudinal cardiovascular study in the world, the Framingham Heart Study. This study has tracked thousands of people over the last 70+ years, their lifestyle choices and their cardiovascular test results. With all this information they have come up with and algorithm that represents the main contributing factors to someone having cardiovascular disease (these are listed above).
Obviously you cannot change your age or sex (from birth) however all the other factors you can.
How can I improve my BMI Heart Age?
Lifestyle factors that will help improve your BMI Heart Age and thus decrease your statistical risk of developing cardiovascular disease include:
Stop smoking, lower your BMI, increase the amount of daily exercise/movement you are doing, improve other lifestyle factors such as stress, sleep, water and vegetable intake etc.
Improving your blood pressure and decreasing your weight will be a positive step in the right direction.
Additional Resources
If you are interested in exploring the Framingham Heart Study further or working out your risk (as a percentage) of obtaining cardiovascular disease in the next 10 years, please check out this link here
*If you are trying to work out your percentage risk, you may need to use the cholesterol conversion website to convert your cholesterol units from USA to NZ metrics. You can easily do this here
If you need assistance to stop smoking, please check out these resources:
Contact Quitline for free on 0800 778 778
Smokefree NZ https://www.smokefree.org.nz/help-advice/stop-smoking-services
Learn more about your BMI here
Book an appointment with a dietitian
Book a 1:1 Exercise Programming session with our Director
You may also be interested in:
How to work out your Fitness Age