Three blood biomarkers may give women a picture of their heart disease risk decades in advance, study shows

Measuring the levels of three biomarkers in blood in midlife may give women a clearer picture of their risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes decades earlier than current risk calculators do, a new study suggests.

Measuring the levels of three biomarkers in blood in midlife may give women a clearer picture of their risk of major cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes decades earlier than current risk calculators do, a new study suggests. When it comes to the worries that women have about their health, heart disease isn’t usually at the top of the list – but it probably should be. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in the United States. In 2021, it was responsible for the deaths of more than 310,000 women, about 1 in every 5 female deaths, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 80% of women ages 40 to 60 are living with at least one risk factor for coronary artery disease, research has found, but only about half of women recognize heart disease as their biggest health risk. Experts say that having better measures of risk earlier in life might help women take critical steps to improve their health before it’s too late. The tests highlighted in the study are not new. “These are widely available. It’s nothing more than checking off a box with a lab slip,” said study author Dr. Paul Ridker, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. They are also inexpensive, he says, ranging from $10 to $12 per test. The study found that these three test results, considered together, could predict cardiovascular risk in seemingly healthy women as much as 30 years before a major cardiovascular event like a heart attack or stroke, a finding that Ridker said was astonishing.