Heart conditions life insurance: ‘Heart cells are renewed’
New research suggests that heart cells are renewed over the course of a lifetime and that people are not limited to the number they are born with.
The researchers estimated that a 20-year-old person renews about one per cent of their heart muscle cells per year, meaning that a 50-year-old only has about half the heart cells they were born with.
It is hoped that this renewal process could one day be exploited to treat people with damaged hearts and possibly even reduce the need for transplants.
Study co-author Jonas Frisen, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, told Science News: "The dream scenario would be after a heart attack, we have a drug to take to increase heart cells."
Heart disease life insurance may become easier to obtain if such a breakthrough were to become reality.
The findings contradict the long-standing belief that a person is born with the same heart cells they die with and that no new ones are made during their life.
Approximately six in every 1,000 UK men aged between 30 and 69 have a heart attack each year and men are three times more likely to suffer one than women, according to NHS figures.
The Insurance Helpline specialises in obtaining cover for people living with heart conditions.
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