Nhs Heart Age

sterling

sterling

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I am worried about the NHS Heart Age tool at:

https://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/heartage.aspx

I am 62 and it gives me a heart age of 81. Can this be correct?

I have Type 2 diabetes, I am slightly overweight BMI 26.4, and I take one blood pressure pill (Losartan). Are these adverse factors really high enough to increase my heart age from 62 to 81?

I am concerned that this tool is highly misleading in adding 19 years to my heart age when my diabetes is very well controlled.

What do others think?
 
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Mr_Pot

Mr_Pot

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My GP said "I am supposed to recommend statins based on the QRisk calculator" I said "run it again without mentioning diabetes" (My HbA1c was 40 at the time) So he did and said "ok fair enough" and hasn't mentioned it again.
 
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bulkbiker

bulkbiker

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Well I'm 56 and got 65 so maybe not that bad.. all the usual bunkum about cholesterol of course and no doubt Type 2 had a part to play as well.
 
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C

carol43

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Mine says I will live to 84 but my BP is too high at 124 (should be 120/80), my cholesterol is too high but I have a healthy weight. If I put in that I don't have diabetes I died 6 years ago.

Can anyone explain that?
 
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Rokaab

Rokaab

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For myself, it only made a little difference, not selecting diabetes got me at 41 (I'm 43), whilst selecting it got it to 44, however it didn't ask the type or length of time of diabetes - so it doesn't know about the damage that I've probably done to it in the last 40 years with various times of dubious blood sugar levels at best.
 
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britishpub

britishpub

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sterling said:
I am worried about the NHS Heart Age tool
Click to expand...

I'm not.

If I tell it I don't have Diabetes it say's my heart age is 59, one year older than I am, or it's 66 if I do have diabetes.

On the other hand if I tell the truth, and say that a close relative had heart disease under 60 (my Dad died of a heart attack at 56) my heart age goes up to 77 :banghead:

Does this mean my heart can start claiming my Old Age Pension :sorry:
 
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sleepster

sleepster

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Mine said 30 with diabetes and 30 without, maybe I am too young for diabetes to be making a considerable difference at the moment?!
 
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DCUKMod

DCUKMod

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Mine only went from a year younger than I am to a year older, when I disclose T2.
 
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sterling

sterling

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Messages
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Type of diabetes
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Tablets (oral)
britishpub said:
I'm not.

If I tell it I don't have Diabetes it say's my heart age is 59, one year older than I am, or it's 66 if I do have diabetes.

On the other hand if I tell the truth, and say that a close relative had heart disease under 60 (my Dad died of a heart attack at 56) my heart age goes up to 77 :banghead:

Does this mean my heart can start claiming my Old Age Pension :sorry:
Click to expand...

Thank you. Good idea. If I lie and say I do not have diabetes, the heart age drops from 81 to 69. It is still high of my real age of 62. My GP tells me that I am so well controlled that it is as though I do not have diabetes.

I suspect that the tool is misleading.
 
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sterling

sterling

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Messages
159
Type of diabetes
Type 2
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Tablets (oral)
And if I take out my blood pressure drug, I drop from 69 to 64.
 
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Rachox

Rachox

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It adds 12 onto my age when I include diabetes (I notice it doesn’t ask type!) if I remove my controlled diabetes it only adds 5, then if I remove my BP meds as my BP is controlled at a systolic of 123 it adds a few years back on! Go figure!
 
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K

KK123

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I wonder what it would do if you put a 90 years old's numbers in?
 
sterling

sterling

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159
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Interestingly, there is a more sophisticated USA tool here:

https://myhealthcheckup.com/cvd/?lang=en

That makes my heart age 63.8 against the NHS calculator which makes me 81.

I think that the NHS tool was probably produced by an intern or an undergraduate project.
 
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paulinderby

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sterling said:
Thank you. Good idea. If I lie and say I do not have diabetes, the heart age drops from 81 to 69. It is still high of my real age of 62. My GP tells me that I am so well controlled that it is as though I do not have diabetes.

I suspect that the tool is misleading.
Click to expand...
It is misleading. How many will be misled and flood the GP's with unnecessary appointments. Therefore putting even more stress on an already struggling NHS.


I heard a bang when I did mine (92 year old heart in a 57 year old body).
Think it was was the NHS shooting themselves in the foot!
 
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