Over 50% Of “Healthy” Adults Have Atherosclerosis

Heart disease kills more adults than any other illness (depending on how we classify things—it can skew the stats if some things are grouped together and others aren’t, but generally speaking, it’s considered #1).

Unless people have received a warning from their doctor about their own heart disease risk, however, it’s usual to assume that it’s something that happens to other people.

And, because of Fat’s Real Barriers To Health, it’s also easy to assume “well it won’t happen to me because my BMI is 21” or such, notwithstanding the flaws When BMI Doesn’t Quite Measure Up.

However, the reality may be a little different:

The numbers aren’t good

Researchers (Dr. Henning Bundgaard et al.) found that 57.1% of 16,808 adults aged 18–70 with no known cardiovascular disease had silent atherosclerosis, meaning plaque was detected in at least one of three vascular territories using carotid and femoral ultrasound and coronary CT angiography, despite having had, as we say, no known cardiovascular disease before going in for those tests.

One of the things that was learned is that the disease starts early: atherosclerosis was detected even in young adults. Among those ages 18 to 29, 8.7% of men and 6.7% of women had silent disease. Among ages 30 to 39, the rates rose to 34.6% for men and 21.3% for women.

On which note, about half of men had developed silent atherosclerosis by age 50, compared with about 30% of women. Women generally developed it 5 to 10 years later, but the increase was steeper during midlife, and women eventually caught up with men at older ages.

There were some other differences too, for example that in younger adults, plaque was usually found in the peripheral arteries, most often the carotid arteries, and was generally limited to one vascular territory. In older people, especially men, involvement of both the carotid and femoral arteries became more common.

You can find the paper itself, here: Prevalence of Silent Atherosclerosis across Adult Life

As to what can be done about this,

❝Detecting silent atherosclerosis is only valuable if you can do something about it. We need to know who this benefits. Does finding silent disease and acting on it improve health outcomes? Prevalence is different than prognosis.❞

~ Dr. Isabel Gonçalves, another researcher on the team

In other words, much like how “genes predispose; they don’t predetermine”, the fact that a disease exists doesn’t necessarily mean it can’t be reversed (in fact, with heart disease, including atherosclerosis, it very rarely means it can’t be reversed).

It’s just, better to start sooner rather than later!

Want some ideas of what to do about it?

You might like these articles we wrote:

• Save Your Heart!
• Can We Drink To Good Health? ← this is about red wine and heart health, and the short answer is “no, we cannot”
• A New Contender For “Best Diet For Heart & Brain” In Aging
• Better Than Aspirin vs Cardiovascular Disease
• How To Double Your Heart Attack Risk With This One Easy Sleep Habit

We also recommend this excellent book that we reviewed:

Healthy Habits For Your Heart – by Monique Tello ← it has 100 easily-implementable things you can do 😎

Take care!