Nearly everyone who experiences a cardiovascular event — heart attacks, heart failure and strokes — exhibits at least one modifiable risk factor beforehand, new research shows. The study refutes the notion that these events happen without warning. The researchers concluded that greater scrutiny of these issues could prevent cardiovascular events. "We think the study shows very convincingly that exposure to one or more non-optimal risk factors before these cardiovascular outcomes is nearly 100%," he said. "The goal now is to work harder on finding ways to control these modifiable risk factors rather than to get off track in pursuing other factors that are not easily treatable and not causal."