Atherosclerosis, the gradual hardening and narrowing of the arteries long associated with old age, appears to take hold far earlier and far more widely than previously assumed. That is the central finding of a large-scale study involving nearly 17,000 participants in Denmark and Spain, whose results have just been released.
To assess the state of participants’ arteries, researchers combined ultrasound imaging with CT scans, examining blood vessels in the neck and legs as well as the coronary arteries. The results were striking: more than 57 percent of participants aged 18 to 70 already showed visible signs of the disease.
Even more notably, the condition is not confined to older adults. Among those aged 18 to 29, roughly one in thirteen already carried detectable markers of arterial disease. Prevalence rises sharply in the thirties, reaching 34.6 percent among men compared with 21.3 percent among women, a gap consistent with previous cardiovascular research.
According to the study, men typically develop arterial changes five to ten years earlier than women, whose risk accelerates markedly later in life. As people age, plaque buildup becomes both more common and more extensive across the population as a whole.
The underlying mechanism is well understood by cardiologists: fats, cholesterol and other substances gradually accumulate on vessel walls, progressively narrowing them. Should a deposit rupture, it can trigger a blood clot, raising the risk of a heart attack or stroke.
The study also flags a concerning gap in current cardiovascular risk-assessment tools: many patients with plaque clearly visible on imaging were not flagged as high-risk under standard screening criteria. The authors argue this points to a need for earlier and more systematic screening, including among younger adults who may wrongly assume they are not at risk.
