A HEART Age Tool to find out your risk of heart and stroke has been launched for World Heart Day yesterday.

Public Health England (PHE) have urged people in Gloucester to use the online tool to find out their heart age and cardiovascular risk.

In Gloucestershire the mortality rate, from 2012-2014, totalled 1,057 people under age 75 due to cardiovascular diseases (CVD’s). The count was 99,240 people across England. It was found to be most common in people over age 50, and men are more likely to develop it at a younger age than women.

Jamie Waterall, PHE’s National lead for cardiovascular disease prevention, said: “Even though you may not have symptoms, having a heart age higher than your own age indicates an increased risk of serious illness. The Heart Age Tool gives an immediate indication of a person’s potential risk and what they can start doing to reduce it.”

A Gloucestershire resident, Patricia Barry, from Stroud, said: “I think it’s a good thing but I’m unsure that people will the time to use it. It’s the people who probably should use it who won’t.”

Worryingly the British Heart Foundation (BHF) found that four in five people over age 30 have a heart age older than their chronological age in a study of 575,000 people. This makes them more likely to have a potentially fatal heart attack or stroke.

Dr Mike Knapton, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Armed with this knowledge from the tool you can start to make changes to help protect yourself against cruel and life changing events such as heart attack and stroke.

“The younger you start making small but significant changes, the greater the return on your in investment in your health.”

The Heart Age Tool is available for people over 30 on the NHS Choices site at https://www.nhs.uk/tools/pages/heartage.aspx. For those aged 18-30, go to Public Health England’s site ‘One You’ to complete the ‘How are you?’ quiz at https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou.

A Gazette reporter tested the ‘How are you?’ quiz. It told her during the quiz: “Sounds like you're feeling pretty good at the moment. But, however well you're doing, you could probably be even better.

“Taking care of yourself doesn't have to takes lots of time or mean you have to stick to unrealistic plans. You can make simple changes that fit around your life and will bring out the best in you.

She said: “Based on my answers the quiz gave great personalised health advice including diet and exercise tips.”

Currently cardiovascular disease (CVD) causes more than a quarter (27%) of all deaths in the UK, around 155,000 people each year, and coronary heart disease is the UK’s single biggest killer.

The older a person’s heart age: the higher their risk of a cardiovascular event - such as a stroke or heart attack. A heart age greater than 70 increases the risk significantly.

Despite this, most cases in people under 75 are preventable. Factors like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, as well as smoking, diet and a lack of exercise, can increase someone’s risk of developing CVD.

Johanna Ralston, Chief Executive of the World Heart Federation, said: “The theme of this year’s World Heart Day is to power your life. With so many people finding their heart ages are older than their actual ages, the Heart Age Tool is an extremely useful wake-up call for people to implement those simple lifestyle changes that can improve their heart age and their wellbeing.”