Biomarkers are measurable things- lab tests, vital signs (like heart rate and blood pressure), and physical exam findings- which we can track. We can use them to see where you are in the spectrum. Are your results normal? Elevated? Are you at low or high risk? And then we can use biomarkers to see if interventions are working.
What are heart biomarkers?
Many of the heart biomarkers are found on physical exam.
- Blood pressure. For this we care about the high number- systolic blood pressure, the maximum pressure in an artery when your heart is pumping blood through the body- and the low number – diastolic blood pressure, the pressure in an artery when the heart is at rest. This pressure is tested with a blood pressure cuff on physical exam.
- What is high? A systolic blood pressure over 140 mm or a diastolic over 90 mm/Hg . Systolic is thought to be a bigger indicator of risk.
- NOTE: “High” blood pressure numbers are being reevaluated. Many would now lower these numbers. When checking your blood pressure, a single measurement will not do. I recommend buying a blood pressure cuff and checking your blood pressure every 3 hours regardless of what you are doing. Make a chart and see how you react. An espresso? Stressful meeting? In traffic? Watching TV?
- Why do we care? This is an indicator of risk for cardiovascular death, stroke, coronary heart disease, and mortality
- Pulse pressure. This is the difference between your systolic number and diastolic number, and gives you an indication of arterial stiffness and increase in wave reflection amplitude. (Stiff arteries are bad. It is a sign of atherosclerosis, clogging of the arteries.)
- As you age, your diastolic pressure may go down as your systolic goes up. This creates an increase in pulse pressure, particularly after age 60.
- Pulse pressure also rises with smoking, drinking, and lack of physical activity.
- Why do we care? This is also an indicator of stroke, heart attacks, heart failure, overall mortality
- Resting pulse rate. This is what your heart does when you are at rest. Got an iWatch? a Fitbit? An Oura ring? They will all give you what your resting pulse rate is. This is an indicator of overall fitness and your heart functioning.
- When you are born it is high and then lowers. It stays stable from ages 25-74.
- It can vary with genetics, ethnicity, gender, and athleticism. (Women have faster pulses than men)
- A resting pulse above 90 is high
- Why do we care? This is an indicator of heart disease and mortality
Labwork?
- Total homocysteine. This is an amino acid that helps with lipid metabolism. Homocysteine affects atherosclerosis developing in your arteries- it is associated with damage to the inner lining of arteries and promoting blood clots
- Elevated homocysteine levels (>14 µmol/liter)
- It is improved when eating folate, B12, and B6
- Why do we care? It is associated with heart, vascular, brain, and peripheral vascular disease. It is linked to poor cognitive function (brain)
There are other labs I would include on this list: Cholesterol, blood glucose, C reactive protein (a sign of inflammation). BMI, Waist to hip ratio and others. In this article though, they call those the biomarkers of metabolic processes. We will discuss those in our next blog.
How can Biohackr Health help you with heart biomarkers?
Please note how all of these things are interrelated. Want to improve your heart health? Lowering your risk factors for heart disease is likely lowering your risk for dementia, diabetes, and more. You are likely a healthy weight. You likely are building muscle. You likely are doing hormone support. Healthspan and longevity are all tied up together.
- We do testing of all the labs associated with heart risk. These lab tests are in the comfort of our clinics in San Francisco or Palo Alto. No waiting in line for hours. TESTS FOR HEART.
- We advocate other testing to see heart risk, like a cardiac calcium scan, to see if you have any evidence already of build up in your arteries. You can use this as a proxy for your arteries throughout your body- brain, extremities, organs. This is a test done at a local outpatient clinic near Biohackr.
- We offer treatments. Need to lose weight? Build muscle and strength to lower your resting heart rate? We have creatine, NAD, GLPs, continuous glucose monitors, and more. These treatments and products are located in our Bay Area clinics or in our online SHOP.
- We look at other ways to address heart health. Did you know estrogen is very cardioprotective? Hormone replacement for women in menopause helps heart health. Did you know creatine has been shown to help with heart health? See one of the studies here
- Need medications? We have one-on-one telehealth visits for those who need a more medical deep dive. TELEHEALTH
- We are up to date. One of the reasons we formed Biohackr Health was that modern medicine is more reactionary. They wait until your cholesterol is high to intervene. They don’t even test for things like Apoprotein B, which has been shown to correlate more with heart disease risk than LDL.
- We advocate for individual changes, done early. Prevention is key. Lowering risk can be done by optimizing you before you are in the range where your biomarkers are abnormal or high.
Let us help you navigate this for better heart health and longevity.
MEDICAL REFERENCES:
Evidence for a positive linear relation between blood pressure and mortality in elderly people
Isolated systolic hypertension : prognostic information provided by pulse pressure
Increased pulse pressure and risk of heart failure in the elderly
BIOMARKERS RELATED TO AGING IN HUMAN POPULATIONS
Role of Creatine in the Heart: Health and Disease