It’s heartbreaking — almost half of all American adults have some type of cardiovascular disease.

The news comes out of the American Heart Association’s annual statistics report, released Thursday. The group defines this classification as anyone with coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure or high blood pressure.

“Cardiovascular disease produces immense health and economic burdens in the United States and globally,” the authors write in the study published in the journal Circulation.

The alarming 48 percent stat can be partially attributed to a 2017 change, when the AHA lowered the threshold of high blood pressure measurements from 140/90 to 130/80 mm Hg. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is the leading contributor to this stat. Excluding it, cardiovascular diseases only affect 9 percent of American adults.

Dr. David Zhao, chief of cardiology medicine and executive director of the Heart and Vascular Center at Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, tells CNN the AHA’s new report is a “painful reminder” that heart disease is still the No. 1 cause of death in the US.

In 2016, a record-breaking 840,678 people died as a result of it. Although there was a decades-long decline, cardiovascular death rates are now on the rise in America, the report says. However worldwide, fewer people died because of cardiovascular diseases than in previous years.

The good news? The AHA says that 80 percent of cardiovascular diseases can be prevented. Best practices include not smoking, eating a healthy diet, exercising and maintaining a healthy weight. It’s also important to actively address your high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.