Lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels, quitting smoking, managing diabetes: these evidence-backed approaches remain key ways to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease (SN: 11/9/15).
But an unexpected contributor to that risk has emerged in the past decade. Nothing can be done to specifically tackle this risk factor yet, but the discovery offers a new angle to understanding cardiovascular disease. And it might partly explain why some people develop the disease even when they don’t check the familiar boxes on the modifiable risk list. A 2021 Lancet study found that of just over 62,000 people who had had serious heart attacks from 2005 to 2018, 15 percent did not smoke and did not have high cholesterol, high blood pressure or diabetes.
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