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Cardiovascular disease

The group of conditions affecting the heart or blood vessels, including coronary heart disease and stroke. It commonly develops as fatty material builds up inside arteries, sometimes with no symptoms before a first event.

What is cardiovascular disease?

Cardiovascular disease is the group of conditions affecting the heart or blood vessels, including coronary heart disease and stroke. It commonly develops as fatty material builds up inside arteries, sometimes with no symptoms before a first event.

Over 8 million

Over 8 million people are living with cardiovascular disease in the UK. More than 4 million of them are men. [1]

  • It causes around a quarter of all UK deaths: roughly 170,000 a year, around 460 every day. [1]
  • Men are more likely to get it than women, and risk also rises with age, family history, ethnicity, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. [2]
  • Around 70% of the UK's cardiovascular burden is associated with modifiable risk factors, and the NHS says it can often be prevented by a healthy lifestyle. [1]

The weight connection

The British Heart Foundation records that around 1 in 9 UK cardiovascular deaths are associated with a high body-mass index: over 21,000 each year. The NHS lists excess weight among the lifestyle factors that make cardiovascular disease more likely. [1][2]

Symptoms and when to see a GP

  • The most common symptoms of coronary heart disease are chest pain (angina) and breathlessness. Some people have no symptoms before they are diagnosed. [3]
  • A stroke happens when blood suddenly stops flowing to part of the brain. It can affect speech and movement. [2]
  • Dial 999 if you think you are having a heart attack. Chest pain that lasts longer than 15 minutes may be the start of one. [3]
  • See a GP if you think you are at higher risk of having or getting cardiovascular disease. [2]

How a GP assesses the risk

GPs in England use a tool called QRISK3 to estimate the chance of a heart attack or stroke over the next 10 years. NICE recommends it for people aged 25 to 84 who do not already have cardiovascular disease. [4]

QRISK3 takes age, sex, ethnicity, smoking, diabetes, family history, blood pressure, body-mass index and the cholesterol ratio, among other factors. The free NHS Health Check, offered every 5 years from age 40 to 74, measures several of these and gives you the score. [5][6]

The cholesterol ratio in the HeMed blood test is one of those inputs. A blood test alone does not produce a risk score: age, blood pressure and medical history come from you and your GP. [5]

Can our blood test see it?

5 of 10markers we measure sit in this territory

  • Cardiovascular risk

    • Total cholesterol
    • LDL cholesterol
    • HDL cholesterol
    • Triglycerides
    • Cholesterol ratio

  • Liver function

    • ALT
    • AST
    • GGT

  • Diabetes risk

    • HbA1c

  • Thyroid function

    • TSH

A blood test alone does not diagnose cardiovascular disease. For a full risk assessment, the free NHS Health Check (ages 40 to 74) and your GP are the route.

Where to start: if your heart is your main concern, the free NHS Health Check (ages 40 to 74) and your GP are the route to a full risk assessment. If excess weight is part of the picture, HeMed’s clinician-led weight management starts with a blood test: 5 of the 10 markers we measure sit in this territory, and a clinician reviews them before any decision.

HeMed provides clinician-led weight management. We do not diagnose or treat cardiovascular disease. This page is general health information, not medical advice. If you are worried about symptoms, speak to your GP, or use NHS 111.

The blood test Explore How clinician-led weight management works Explore

Related conditions

Related reading

Page updated 27 October 2026.

Sources (6)
  1. British Heart Foundation, "UK Cardiovascular Disease Factsheet", July 2026 edition. bhf.org.uk/heart-statistics. Accessed 3 September 2026.
  2. NHS, "Cardiovascular disease", page last reviewed 12 January 2026. nhs.uk/conditions/cardiovascular-disease. Accessed 3 September 2026.
  3. NHS, "Coronary heart disease: symptoms", page last reviewed 17 January 2024. nhs.uk/conditions/coronary-heart-disease/symptoms. Accessed 22 October 2026.
  4. NICE, NG238 "Cardiovascular disease: risk assessment and reduction, including lipid modification", recommendation 1.1.7 (December 2023). nice.org.uk/guidance/ng238. Accessed 22 October 2026.
  5. ClinRisk, QRISK3 risk calculator and its input list, after Hippisley-Cox J, Coupland C, Brindle P. BMJ 2017;357:j2099. qrisk.org. Accessed 22 October 2026.
  6. NHS, "NHS Health Check", page last reviewed 14 August 2023. nhs.uk/conditions/nhs-health-check. Accessed 22 October 2026.

Numbered markers in the page text link to these entries. Statistics describe populations, not any one person’s results.