Just five modifiable factors are the leading causes of cardiovascular disease

A new study has found that there are five modifiable risk factors associated with getting cardiovascular disease and knowing about each could help you save your life one day. 

Cardiovascular disease is an umbrella term for a group of problems that affect the heart and blood often related to atherosclerosis according to the American Heart Association. 

Atherosclerosis is a condition that develops when plaque builds up in the walls of your arteries, leading to their narrowing and the chance of suffering a heart attack or stroke.

However, this deadly fate can be avoided if you know the five most common factors that lead to over fifty percent of cardiovascular disease. So what are these five risk factors?

Body mass index, diabetes, systolic blood pressure levels, whether or not an individual smoked, and non–high-density lipoprotein cholesterol explained more than fifty percent of cardiovascular disease cases (57.2% for men and 52.6% for women). 

“This result should stimulate policymakers to tailor preventive action globally,” wrote Dr. Christina Magnussen in a review of the research for the online journal Practice Update. 

These five risk factors were also related to all-cause mortality according to the study’s authors, meaning that they could also lead to a higher risk of death among participants with 19.1% of men and 22.2% of women dying as a result of the five factors. 

Roughly 1,518,000 individuals participated in this global harmonized study and 80,596 had developed cardiovascular disease after a median follow-up time of just 7.3 years. 

Interestingly, the study’s authors noted a large number of rising cases of cardiovascular disease (CVD) remain unexplained: There remains a large gap between identifying CVD as a problem, identifying the best package of solutions, and delivering them.”

Cardiovascular disease was the cause of  6.2 million deaths in people between the ages of thirty and seventy in 2019 according to the study’s authors, making it a very important area of research for future health outcomes—especially if people can modify some factors to lower their risks.