People with poor planning, reasoning, and problem-solving skills may actually be at greater risk for heart attack and stroke, new research shows.

The findings, published in the journal Neurology, suggest so-called “poor executive functions” should be added to the list of well-known cardiovascular risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, overweight, obesity, Medical News Today reports.

"These results show that heart and brain function are more closely related than appearances would suggest," said lead researcher Benham Sabayan, with Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. "While these results might not have immediate clinical translation, they emphasize that assessment of cognitive function should be part of the evaluation of future cardiovascular risk."

Each year, 735,000 Americans suffer a heart attack and another 795,000 have a stroke. Both result from blockages in blood flow — to the heart or brain.

For the study, Sabayan’s team analyzed the medical records of 3,926 seniors who had no history of heart attack, stroke, or dementia.

At the start of the study, the participants took tests that assessed and rated their executive function, then were tracked for three years.

The results showed that individuals with low scores on executive function tests were at 85 percent greater risk of heart attack and 51 percent greater risk of stroke than those with high executive function scores.

"Performance on tests of thinking and memory are a measure of brain health. Lower scores on thinking tests indicate worse brain functioning,” Sabayan said.

“Worse brain functioning — in particular, in executive function — could reflect disease of the brain vascular supply, which in turn would predict, as it did, a higher likelihood of stroke. And, since blood vessel disease in the brain is closely related to blood vessel disease in the heart, that's why low test scores also predicted a greater risk of heart attacks."