Researcher finds hearts shrinking at age 50

The human heart undergoes an inevitable - and inexplicable, shrinkage at the half-century mark, a phenomenon that its Long Island, NY, discoverer is calling the "age 50 effect," a mysterious development that affects both genders.

"This is the first time that this kind of narrow time window has emerged for such a dramatic change," said Dr Nathaniel Reichek, director of research and education at St Francis Hospital, The Heart Centre in Roslyn.

While other medical investigators, including researchers with the Framingham Heart Study in Massachusetts and the Mesa Study at Johns Hopkins University, have uncovered similar evidence, Reichek and his team have defined it, and timed when chronologically when it occurs.

"It has been recognised for some time that the heart chambers get smaller with age, but what pops out in this work is that there is an inflection point," he said of the 50-year mark, "where rapidly occurring change occurs."

The 218 participants in the research, all residents of Long Island and New York City, were defined by Reichek as "genuinely normal" because they were free of illnesses, especially chronic cardiac problems. Participants ranged from their 20s to late 80s.

Underlying causes

Yet, at the moment, Reichek's discovery of mid-century cardiac shrinkage seems to have raised more questions than answers.

Can exercise blunt or even reverse the effects of cardiac shrinkage? Why age 50? Why not 40 or 60? Does substantial change, lay the foundation for heart failure later in life?

"Those are all very good questions, but we don't have the answers at this time," Reichek said Tuesday. Hence, his study is hunting down the underlying causes

What he has found so far suggests that blood pressure rises as the heart loses size. An age-related increase in blood pressure has been recognised by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. He also found that even though the heart shrinks in both men and women, certain gender-specific anomalies remain.