HerzNov 2, 2026

Can Age Be Changed to Lower Heart Disease Risk?

Longevity & Aging Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Nov 3, 2026

Abstract

Biological aging is increasingly recognized as a modifiable process, with interventions showing potential to extend healthspan and lifespan.

Age is the strongest risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
Animal studies have shown that various interventions can extend both healthspan and lifespan by targeting mechanisms of aging.
Biomarkers of biological aging, known as 'aging clocks,' allow for the estimation of biological aging in humans.
These aging clocks enable the evaluation of interventions such as caloric restriction and rapamycin in human trials.
Organ- and cell-specific aging clocks have been developed to assess the biological age of the heart and vasculature.
These biomarkers may enhance cardiovascular risk prediction and serve as surrogate outcomes in trials targeting cardiovascular aging.

Simplified

Age is the strongest risk factor for cardiovascular disease, yet biological aging is increasingly recognized as a modifiable process. Animal studies over the past few decades have demonstrated that genetic, pharmacological, and dietary interventions can extend the healthspan and lifespan of animals by targeting conserved mechanisms of aging. Examining whether lifespan-extending interventions work in humans is challenging due to the long lifespan of our species. However, the development of biomarkers of biological aging or "aging clocks" has allowed for human trials where the rate of biological aging can be estimated. These surrogate markers now enable the first generation of human geroscience trials, in which interventions such as caloric restriction, rapamycin, taurine, plasma exchange, or nutritional strategies are evaluated for their ability to slow biological aging. Particularly relevant for cardiology are recently developed organ- and cell-specific aging clocks that estimate the biological age of the heart, vasculature, and cardiovascular cell types. These biomarkers may be suitable for improving cardiovascular risk prediction and providing surrogate outcomes for trials targeting cardiovascular aging. Together, these advances suggest that slowing biological aging could complement established cardiovascular prevention and treatment strategies in the future.

Full Text

Full text is available at the source.

View Full Text ↗

Can Age Be Changed to Lower Heart Disease Risk?

Abstract

Full Text

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

What Lands in Your Inbox Each Week:

Recent issues from the longevity & aging brief