No matter how many diseases we come across, heart attacks remain one of the scariest diseases one could encounter in their lifetime. Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) – the wide umbrella of heart diseases, heart attack is a part of – are the leading cause of death globally. In fact, a 2025 American Heart Association report, which uses global data, estimates that the global prevalence of CVD was 612.06 million in 2025.
But here’s the thing: Heart attacks don’t always strike with sudden, dramatic chest pain. Often, your body sends quiet, everyday signals, well before a heart crisis hits. In fact, a recent American Heart Association guide lists key symptoms like chest discomfort, upper-body pain, breathlessness, cold sweating, nausea, rapid heartbeat, and lightheadedness – symptoms that may appear gradually or without the classic chest pain.
Now, a new study has revealed that nearly 99% of heart attacks, strokes, or major cardiovascular events that occur in people who already had warning signs – often silent, untreated, or dismissed.
These “red flags” show up years before a crisis, which means that most incidents are not sudden or unpredictable but build up over time. In other words, almost no one’s cardiovascular event is truly “out of the blue.” Researchers found that virtually all patients showed early red flags – particularly 4 warning signs – years before their first major incident.
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