IMC researchers help ID new genetic markers for heart disease risk

Heart disease, like other ills, is "multifactorial," said Anderson, who added that there's much more to be done to understand both environmental and genetic factors of heart disease. He said 40-50 percent of the risk is genetically based. And "this massive effort in 150,000 people only explains about 20 percent of the risk." That leaves an awful lot unexplained.

Because most of the risk is not genetic, but environmental, "we need to know our numbers," such as blood pressure, he said. Among known risk factors are smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

The lead institution in the study is the University of Lubeck in Germany. The research subjects were from Europe, Canada and the United States.

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