99 Percent Of Heart Disease Begins With 4 Daily Habits

Illustration of heart attacks or heart disease. (Pexels/RDNE Stock Project)

JAKARTA - Researchers say heart disease does not occur suddenly and is not always due to genetics. Patients with heart disease have at least one of the four main risk factors before.

Citing Science Direct, on Friday, October 9, 2025, researchers discovered facts related to heart disease based on health data from 9 million patients with heart disease and other cardiovascular events in South Korea and the United States.

Researchers found that almost all patients have at least four risk factors that come from daily habits. These factors include high blood pressure and high cholesterol (due to poor diet), high blood sugar levels (excess sugar consumption), and smoking habits (both active and former smokers).

Combined, as many as 99 percent of cases of heart attacks and other cardiovascular disease were preceded by these four risk factors. Even in women under the age of 60, more than 95 percent of cases of heart disease and stroke are related to one of the risk factors.

High blood pressure is the most frequently associated with cardiovascular disease. In the United States and South Korea, more than 93 percent of individuals who experienced heart attacks, strokes, or heart failure previously had hypertension.

"We think this study shows very convincing exposure to one or more non-optimal risk factors prior to cardiovascular events nearly 100 percent," said cardiac expert Philip Greenland.

Philip said that with these findings, a way to properly control risk factors must be found immediately. This finding also challenges claims that cardiovascular disease arises without risk factors.

"Our goal now is to work harder to find ways to control these modified risk factors, rather than getting lost looking for other factors that are difficult to treat and not the main cause," concluded Philip Greenland.