Discover Your Cardiovascular Age

According to Statistics Canada, heart disease is the second-leading cause of mortality in the country (behind cancer), accounting for nearly one in five deaths. It is therefore important to take care of your heart to live a long and healthy life. But did you know that your heart may actually be older than you are?

If you have several cardiovascular risk factors, your heart may actually be older than you! For example, even if you are only 55, your heart could be the same age—and therefore be at the same risk for heart attack—as someone who is 65!

There are a number of factors that can impact the health of your heart and increase your risk of having a cardiac event. Some of these factors are beyond your control:

• Your age
• Your gender (men are at higher risk than pre-menopausal women)
• Your family history of cardiac disease (parents, brother, sister)

Other factors, on the other hand, are controllable, meaning it is possible to make changes to reduce their impact on your heart:

• Smoking
• Diabetes
• High blood cholesterol
• High blood pressure
• Lack of physical activity
• Excess weight, especially around the waist

It is possible to rejuvenate your heart and reduce your risk of heart disease by taking steps to alter these controllable risk factors, for example, by carefully following your diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol treatment, and by adopting healthy lifestyle habits.

To find out what your cardiovascular age is, go to Myhealthcheckup.com. If your heart is older than you are, the risk calculator will propose steps you can take to rejuvenate it.

Need help improving your lifestyle habits or following your treatment? Your pharmacist is there to help!