Better heart health linked to lower risk of thyroid problems
Each 5-point higher cardiovascular health score was linked to 7% lower relative risk of an overactive thyroid and 8% lower risk of an underactive thyroid.
Our read
Populations- Studied:
- Cohort study of 360,332 UK Biobank participants without thyroid disease at baseline
- What changed:
- Hyperthyroidism risk was 7% lower and hypothyroidism risk was 8% lower for each 5-point increase in CVH score
- In the record:
- The 25th paper on cardiovascular health score with results in people; 45 on record in all.
- Why it’s aging research:
- It bears on staying healthy in midlife and later life.
Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
An observational study followed 360,332 UK Biobank participants who had no thyroid disease at the start and had complete cardiovascular health scores. Over a median of 12.53 years, 1,533 developed an overactive thyroid and 7,542 developed an underactive thyroid.
After accounting for other factors, higher cardiovascular health scores were associated with lower risks of both conditions. Among the score’s components, obesity and tobacco exposure contributed most to disease risk. Measures of inflammation partly accounted for these associations in the researchers’ analysis. Depression and anxiety modified the link with an underactive thyroid. The authors concluded that favorable cardiovascular health was associated with lower thyroid dysfunction risk, particularly among people with good mental health.
Why it matters
The inflammation analysis raises a question for aging research: whether inflammation helps connect cardiovascular health with changes in thyroid function.
Caveats
This observational study cannot establish that better cardiovascular health prevented thyroid disease. Participants had no thyroid disease at enrollment, so the findings do not address people with an existing thyroid condition.
The paper
Cardiovascular Health Protects against Thyroid Dysfunction: Findings from the UK Biobank
Sheng Jing Hospital
Endocrinology and Metabolism, Aug 5, 2026, Open access
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