Heart-related problems like heart attacks and strokes are a big deal globally, causing about one-third of all deaths.
The scary part is these problems often grow quietly over the years, and people don’t realize it until it’s too late.
Imagine the walls of your blood vessels getting harder over time. That’s what happens in arteriosclerosis, leading to other scary stuff like heart attacks.
The Study: Understanding the Big Five Risk Factors
Scientists from the Global Cardiovascular Risk Consortium did a massive study involving 1.5 million people from 34 different countries.
They found that more than half of heart diseases are directly connected to five major risk factors: being overweight, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, and diabetes.
The biggest bad guy among them? High blood pressure, which is the top reason people end up having heart attacks and strokes.
Professor Stefan Blankenberg, who led the study, said that their findings are a big deal for preventing these health problems.
However, he also mentioned that nearly 45% of heart diseases aren’t linked to these five factors, meaning we still have more to learn.
What Makes You At Risk? It Depends On Where You Live
The study also found that depending on where you are in the world, some risk factors are more common than others.
For example, being overweight is a big issue in Latin America, while high blood pressure and high cholesterol are more common in Europe.
If you’re in Latin America or Eastern Europe, smoking is a big concern, while diabetes is more common in North Africa and the Middle East.
These five risk factors together make up about 57% of heart risk in women and around 53% in men.
However, it’s important to note that these factors only make up about 20% of the overall risk of dying from any cause, not just heart diseases.
What Can We Do About It?
Dr. Christina Magnussen, another scientist involved in the study, emphasized that these risk factors can be changed.
Simple things like a better lifestyle and medication can lower blood pressure or cholesterol levels, making you less likely to have heart problems.
Interestingly, as people age, the impact of these risk factors lessens, except for Body Mass Index (BMI), which remains a risk at any age.
This opens up questions about how we should approach treatment for older people.
The Bottom Line
The study offers a roadmap for how to avoid heart diseases by focusing on these major risk factors. High blood pressure is the most critical one, so keeping that in check could significantly reduce your risk.
In the grand scheme of things, understanding and controlling these five risk factors could be a game-changer in tackling the global heart health crisis.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk, and Vitamin K2 could help reduce heart disease risk.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about how to remove plaques that cause heart attacks, and results showing a new way to prevent heart attacks, and strokes.
The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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