Blood fats linked to heart aging in American Indians
Researchers measured 1,542 blood fats twice in 1,801 American Indians, linking several to heart-aging measures and some to later coronary heart disease.
Independent replication
Limit: Heart aging was inferred from ventricular filling and relaxation measures
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
An observational study followed 1,801 American Indians, whose average starting age was 40.0 years. Researchers measured 1,542 fats in fasting blood samples at two exams, an average of 5.5 years apart. They examined links with measures of how the heart’s main pumping chamber relaxed and filled between beats, accounting for demographic, lifestyle and clinical factors.
Several blood fats were associated with these heart-aging measures. Some links also appeared in African American and White participants in the Bogalusa Heart Study. Baseline levels of some fats were linked to lower coronary heart disease risk over 20 years, with hazard ratios of 0.21–0.86. Others were linked to higher risk, with hazard ratios of 1.24–1.34. Hazard ratios compare disease rates over time; below one indicates a lower rate, and above one a higher rate.
Why it matters
Declining ability of the heart to relax can precede cardiovascular disease. The authors suggest that blood-fat patterns may serve as early markers of future coronary heart disease.
Caveats
The observational design cannot show that these fats caused heart aging or coronary heart disease. Findings from the main American Indian cohort may not apply equally to other populations.
The paper
Johns Hopkins University; University of South Florida
GeroScience, Jul 2, 2026, Open access
