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Cardiovascular disease prevention: lifestyle attenuation of genetic risk

Both rare and common genetic variants predict the onset of cardiovascular disease (CVD), but recent studies have provided compelling evidence that individuals who harbour variants that elevate their risk of CVD can substantially lower this risk by controlling lifestyle-related risk factors, such as smoking, diet, and physical activity.

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Correspondence to Benoit J. Arsenault.

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Competing interests

B.J.A. holds a junior scholar award from the Fonds de recherche du Québec: Santé (FRQS), and has received consulting fees from Pfizer and research support from Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer. J.-P.D. is the scientific director of the International Chair on Cardiometabolic Risk, which is supported by the Foundation of Université Laval.

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Supplementary information S1 (figure)

Contribution of genetic and lifestyle-related risk factors to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. (PDF 473 kb)

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Arsenault, B., Després, JP. Cardiovascular disease prevention: lifestyle attenuation of genetic risk. Nat Rev Cardiol 14, 187–188 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2017.20

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