If you live in the West, lifestyle-associated illnesses are increasingly likely to kill you.
A new survey of global health risks published in The Lancet has shown that heart attacks and strokes; smoking-related illnesses and obesity are among the biggest killers.
Alcohol also remains a major risk, ranking sixth among level 3 global risk factors, whereas all illicit drug use combined ranks 22nd.
Overall, behavioural, environmental, and metabolic risks like heart disease account for half of worldwide deaths.
The authors say the good news there is that those risks can be prevented.
Lifestyle risks
The researchers behind the The Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor study 2013 looked at 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational risks in 188 countries between 1990 and 2013.
Heart attacks and strokes remain the leading cause of death, and our blood pressure is continuing to rise. That could cause the figures in this category to increase even further.
Smoking sits at no. 2, and we could be doing more to prevent those deaths. Measures including introducing plain packaging for cigarettes are mentioned as possible deterrents.
That is something that the former Minister for Health James Reilly has promoted the change, and the government has indicated that they intend to follow through with the introduction of plain packs, despite opposition from manufacturers.
The biggest rise is in obesity as a death risk. The scientists behind this study say they can see that the burden of high BMI has shown a massive increase over the past 23 years.
That risk is greater for people in certain countries, for example in cultures where women are not encouraged to exercise.
Worldwide risks differ
Other risks worldwide include pollution, child and maternal malnutrition, tropical diseases and malaria - those factors are less significant in the developed world.
However, the death factors differ depending on where you live.
People in sub-Saharan Africa are mostly dying from childbirth, Unsafe sex, and unsafe water, sanitation and handwashing. Obesity is not leading killer in this region, and other lifestyle-related illnesses are also less prominent.
For women, in nearly all countries in the Americas, north Africa, and the Middle East, and in many other high-income countries, high BMI is the leading risk factor, with high blood pressure as the leading risk in most of Central and Eastern Europe and south and east Asia.
For men, high blood pressure or smoking are the leading risks in nearly all high-income countries, in north Africa and the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.
For men and women, unsafe sex is the leading risk in a corridor from Kenya to South Africa.
The authors are hoping that by identifying risk factors they can spot emerging threats to health and opportunities for prevention.
The research published by The Lancet was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
