Study links inflammation to 43% higher heart attack risk — SkimNews
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- MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences and Imperial College London researchers analyzed UK Biobank data from nearly 480,000 adults — the largest study of its kind on inflammation and heart structure, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
- People in the top 20% of inflammation (measured via the blood marker GlycA) had a 43% higher risk of heart attack and stroke than the bottom 20%, even among those with no prior heart disease.
- Higher inflammation tracked with silent structural remodeling of the heart — thicker walls, smaller chambers, and poorer filling — changes researchers say can build for years before progressing to heart failure.
- The team linked inflammation not only to smoking and excess body fat but also to socioeconomic disadvantage and psychological distress, arguing that poverty and mental health pressure the body into cardiovascular risk through inflammation.
- Interleukin-1 and TNF family proteins were singled out as likely drivers of the heart damage, with several already being targeted by drugs in clinical trials — raising the prospect of anti-inflammatory prevention.
- Researchers, led by Professor Declan O'Regan (British Heart Foundation Chair of Cardiovascular AI at Imperial), suggest inflammation blood tests combined with genetic risk scores could one day flag at-risk patients before symptoms appear.
Why it matters: The study reframes cardiovascular prevention around catching chronic inflammation early, before the heart visibly changes — and pins much of that inflammation on socioeconomic status and mental health, not just personal lifestyle. For patients and clinicians, the near-term payoff is a plausible biomarker pathway (GlycA plus genetic scores) for earlier screening; for the British Heart Foundation and MRC, it justifies testing anti-inflammatory drugs already in trials as a new prevention layer.
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