Experts have today sounded the alarm over a worrying surge in fatal heart failure cases. 

Figures show deaths from the condition—where the heart stops pumping as well as it should—have almost tripled in the US over the last 50 years. 

While heart disease fatalities as a whole, including heart attacks, have plummeted by two thirds over the same time period, deaths from chronic heart conditions such as heart failure now account for almost half of all cases. 

By comparison, the figure stood at just nine per cent half a century ago. 

Researchers today suggested ‘significant’ public health measures including  encouraging people to exercise more, quit smoking as well as improved heart health checks may be behind the overall drop.

But obesity and poor diet may also be partly to blame, particularly for the rise among younger adults under 50, they said. 

It comes as research this year has repeatedly suggested fatty, sugary and additive-laden foods such as crisps and sweets could raise the risk of life-threatening heart issues. 

In response, experts have even called for ultra-processed foods (UPFs) to be slashed from diets. 

Additive-laden foods such as crisps and sweets have been vilified for decades over their supposed risks, with dozens of studies linking them to type 2 diabetes and other diseases

While some warning signs are easy to spot, such as severe chest pain, others are more vague and hard to pinpoint

Dr Sara King, an expert in heart health at Stanford University and study lead author said: ‘This distribution shift in the types of heart disease people were dying from the most was very interesting.

‘This evolution over the past 50 years reflects incredible successes in the way heart attacks and other types of ischemic heart disease are managed. 

‘However, the substantial increase in deaths from other types of heart conditions, including heart failure and arrhythmias, poses emerging challenges the medical community must address.’ 

Symptoms of the incurable condition, heart failure, include extreme breathlessness and life-ruining fatigue, and just half of patients live more than five years after their diagnosis.

It can be triggered by a heart attack, blocked arteries and genetics, but obesity is thought to be a significant driver in almost all cases.

It is thought that pockets of fat accumulate around the internal organs, releasing inflammatory compounds that damage the heart.

Separate research has shown heart failure deaths have risen most rapidly in adults under age 45 and between 45 to 64. 

In the study, scientists assessed rates of heart disease deaths among adults aged 25 and older in the US between 1970 and 2022. 

NHS data shows a rise in the number of younger adults suffering from heart attacks over the past decade. The biggest increase (95 per cent) was recorded in the 25-29 year-old demographic, though as numbers of patients are low even small spikes can look dramatic 

Writing in the Journal of the American Heart Association, they found the proportion of those who died because of a heart attack had fallen 89 per cent over this time period. 

In 1970, the condition accounted for 54 per cent of all heart disease deaths. In 2022, this stood at just 29 per cent.

But fatalities from heart failure, arrhythmia and hypertensive heart disease rose by 146, 106 and 450 per cent, respectively. 

They accounted for 47 per cent of all heart disease deaths in 2022. 

Deaths due to persistent high blood pressure also rose by 106 per cent. 

Factors including obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and poor food choices—all of which have skyrocketed over the past 50 years—may have contributed to this rise, the researchers claimed. 

Professor Latha Palaniappan, an expert in epidemiology and population health at Stanford University and study co-author, said: ‘All of these risk factors contribute to an ongoing burden of heart disease, especially as related to heart failure, hypertensive heart disease and arrhythmias.

‘While heart attack deaths are down by 90 per cent since 1970, heart disease hasn’t gone away. 

The Nova system, developed by scientists in Brazil more than a decade ago, splits food into four groups based on the amount of processing it has gone through. Unprocessed foods include fruit, vegetables, nuts, eggs and meat. Processed culinary ingredients — which are usually not eaten alone — include oils, butter, sugar and salt

‘Now that people are surviving heart attacks, we are seeing a rise in other forms of heart disease like heart failure. 

‘The focus now must be on helping people age with strong, healthy hearts by preventing events, and prevention can start as early as childhood.’

It comes as fresh research last month found that consuming just an extra 100g of UPFs each day—roughly two packets of crisps—raised the risk of life-threatening heart issues

In the study, researchers assessed 41 studies spanning North and South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania involving 8,286,940 adults.

They found each additional 100g per day of UPF consumption was associated with a 5.9 per cent increased risk of cardiovascular events.

The findings, presented at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Asia 2025 conference in Singapore, also showed adults had a 14.5 per cent higher risk of high blood pressure.

Last year, in the biggest analysis of evidence to date involving 10million people, scientists also found those eating the most UPFs had between a 40 and 66 per cent increased risk of dying from heart disease.

In an accompanying editorial, academics from Sao Paolo, Brazil said: ‘Overall, the authors found that diets high in ultra-processed food may be harmful to most—perhaps all—body systems.’

The umbrella term UPFs is used to cover anything edible made with colourings, sweeteners and preservatives that extend shelf life. 

Ready-meals, ice cream and tomato ketchup are some of the best-loved examples of products that fall under the umbrella UPF term.

This is now synonymous with foods offering little nutritional value.

They are different to processed foods, which are tinkered to make them last longer or enhance their taste, such as cured meat, cheese and fresh bread.

The UK is the worst in Europe for eating UPFs, which make up an estimated 57 per cent of the national diet.