The short answer is that knowing someone has leaky valves does not provide enough information to determine how long someone can live. Usually, when physicians think someone has leaky valves, they have them do a test called an echocardiogram. This is basically an ultrasound (like the one used to look at developing babies in a mother s womb) that is used to look at how the heart is working. The echocardiogram can show when blood is flowing in the wrong direction (called regurgitation ) in the each of four valves (Aortic, Pulmonary, Mitral, and Tricuspid valves). It can also tell the physician how severe the back flow is, usually graded as mild, moderate, or severe. Naturally, mild regurgitation has much less impact on a person s heart function than severe. Severe will have a much bigger impact on a patient s life and how functional they can be. To have all four valves being leaky, means that there are other underlying problems in the heart that are causing the valves to leak. These underlying problems may have a bigger impact on life than just having the leaky valves alone. A person with only mild disease can live a very long time. These are questions that should be addressed directly by a physician, or specifically a cardiologist, who can review the results of the echocardiogram, take a detailed history, and perform a physical exam to determine the extend of the disease. Every case is different and there is a multitude of medications to treat various types of heart disease that a physician can prescribe to prolong both life and the quality of it.