Doctors Stress Importance Of Knowing Vascular Age As Heart Walk And Physical Activity Month Begins

According to University of Oklahoma Dr. Robert Wild, the age of your heart and arteries can be younger or older than your chronological age.

Vascular age as knowing the age of your arteries. According to doctors, factors like high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, exercise and how you eat can all play a role in your vascular age.

For women who are menopausal, Dr. Wild said knowing your vascular age is key.

“The risk is clotting, stroke or heart attack,” Dr. Wild said. “The risk is small, but it's there."

Many of the medications people take can pose a health or potential heart risk. For menopausal women who are taking hormone replacement to relieve symptoms, increased cardiovascular disease is a risk.

"You can find out if your vessels are much older than you think or younger,” Dr. Wild said.

Dr. Wild said he used two different cardiovascular risk scoring systems to determine vascular age.

“If you are obese, if you smoke, if you have diabetes, if we know your good cholesterol or bad cholesterol, all those things are important,” Dr. Wild said.

Dr. Wild said it is possible that you could reverse your vascular age.

Some tips to reverse vascular age is avoiding smoke, exercising and eating well.