Obesity accelerates cardiovascular ageing

Obesity and demographic ageing are two global megatrends that overlap in a particularly unfavorable way in the cardiovascular system. Both factors independently increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, but also interact at common biological levels: from cellular senescence and mitochondrial dysfunction to structural cardiac and vascular remodeling. The state-of-the-art review by Ruperez et al. in the European Heart Journal sheds light on how obesity accelerates biological cardiovascular ageing, which mechanistic intersections can be found and which metabolic therapy strategies – from calorie restriction to GLP-1 receptor agonists and SGLT2 inhibitors – can modulate these processes.