The new 'how old is your heart test"

My heart is a year younger than the rest of me.

Further test testing, if you see what I mean, suggests to me that knowing one's cholesterol level and one's usual BP makes a difference too.

I thought it was normal for healthy people not to know these things.

Also, any test that claims "most people" have an older heart age than their chronological age is highly dubious right from kickoff as far as I'm concerned. Those people on the FutureLearn site who are doing the course in how to read media health 'reporting' should use this test to exercise their new found skills in bunkum-finding.

According to this test, my heart age is 71 (I am a few weeks off 70). By pressing the buttons to reduce my blood pressure (which my doctor tells me is fine), reduce my cholesterol (which I didn't give a reading for) and lose weight (well, okay I need to lose about half a stone), my heart age goes down to 69! Hardly worth the bother. If postcode is a factor, it would tell them absolutely nothing about me.

It tells me I'm overweight. I already knew this. It tells me my BP is high - normal, I already knew this. I'm still active, and nobody in my family has had heart disease. My Granny always said that when a woman reaches a certain age, she needs a bit of weight about her. I'm inclined to agree, therefore I'm not worried.

I think the answer to this is on my birth certificate.

Agree with thatbags as my postcode is Liverpool. I found this worked to my advantage when I retired though.

The test gives too much weight to one's postcode. I think this is because certain areas have a higher epidemiological risk of things like heart disease and stroke. So, even though I've never smoked, I'm not overweight, do not have cardiovascular disease nor have any family history of it, because of my postcode makes reference to Glasgow it thinks my heart age is higher than my actual age.

In short, it's a very clumsy epidemiological device.

As I told my GP, my current postcode does not tell him, or anyone else, anything about me. My postcode has been all over the place. I think I'll try the test with a few of the others.

www.bhf.org.uk/heartage

Haven't done it yet, will report back later!

Can you give us a link, might be fun!

No but I would be inclined to believe your GP.