13 dangerous things science has linked to heart disease

A nurse getting ready a senior patient for a stress test on a treadmill.andresr/Getty Images

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States, according to the CDC.
• Some of the greatest risk factors include an unhealthy diet, inactive lifestyle, or experiencing things that might raise blood pressure, like excessive stress or depression.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US — according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four Americans die from heart disease each year.

Insider spoke with Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, the chief medical officer for prevention at the American Heart Association, about some of the biggest risk factors and what habits to avoid in order to best protect yourself from developing heart disease.

While there are four different kinds of heart disease, the risk factors often overlap for each one.

"There are seven major risk factors for developing heart disease," Sanchez said. "Those are smoking, unhealthy eating, a sedentary lifestyle, being overweight or obese, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and pre-diabetes or diabetes. Every single one of those raises the risk of cardiovascular disease."

Here are 13 things science and experts have linked to heart disease.