Researchers have found that five major lifestyle factors—being overweight, having high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, smoking, and diabetes—are directly linked to more than half of heart-related diseases across the globe.
This is a big deal because heart diseases are one of the top causes of death worldwide. The study points out that a lot of these conditions can be prevented if people pay attention to these five factors.
Five Major Risk Factors
A team from various global health organizations analyzed health data from 1.5 million people from 34 different countries.
They wanted to find out how these five common health issues affect the heart. It turns out that high blood pressure is the biggest culprit, playing a major role in causing heart attacks and strokes.
These health issues often sneak up on people over years, silently damaging their arteries.
This can lead to more serious problems like heart attacks or strokes down the line. The study’s message is clear: a lot of heart issues can be avoided if people take care of these risk factors.
However, the researchers also point out that almost half of heart-related cases aren’t explained by these five factors. That means there’s still more to learn.
Regional Differences
The study also looked at how these risk factors show up in different parts of the world. For example, being overweight is most common in Latin America, while high blood pressure and cholesterol levels are a big issue in Europe.
Smoking is particularly common in Latin America and Eastern Europe, and diabetes is most frequent in North Africa and the Middle East.
For women, these five factors account for 57.2% of the risk of developing heart issues, while for men it’s 52.6%.
That means a big chunk of the risk is still unknown. Interestingly, these factors only account for about 20% of the risk of dying from any cause.
What Can We Do About It?
The findings from the study suggest that we can do a lot to prevent heart diseases by focusing on these five factors. High blood pressure is the most significant, so treating it could prevent a lot of heart problems.
Interestingly, the importance of these risk factors decreases as people get older, except for being overweight, which remains a risk at any age.
This could mean that the advice doctors give to older people might need to be different from the advice given to younger folks.
The study gives us valuable clues on how to stay heart-healthy. By keeping an eye on these five key factors, people can greatly reduce their risk of heart problems.
It also highlights the need for more research to understand the remaining unexplained risks better.
If you care about heart health, please read studies that vitamin K helps cut heart disease risk by a third, and a year of exercise reversed worrisome heart failure.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about supplements that could help prevent heart disease, stroke, and results showing this food ingredient may strongly increase heart disease death risk.
The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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