| SolveYourProblem
Article Series: Heart Health
I Want A Healthy Heart!
What
Are The Risk Factors For Heart Disease?
There are a lot of risk factors for heart
disease, but there are six major risk factors that everyone
should pay attention to. These are the most common risk factors,
accounting for the vast majority of heart disease. These six
risk factors are diabetes, smoking, physical inactivity, obesity,
high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.
Diabetes
Diabetes is a major risk factor for heart disease. For a long
time, the medical community has known that high blood sugar
can have a detrimental effect on the heart. Patients with diabetes
have double to as much as quadruple the risk of dying of heart
attack or stroke that someone who has already had a previous
heart attack but doesn’t have diabetes.
A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found
evidence that lowering your blood sugar significantly can reduce
the risk of heart attack and stroke by nearly half! This is
most prominent in those with Type 1 diabetes, but there’s an
ongoing trial about whether or not controlling blood sugar
levels could also halve the risk in patients with Type 2 diabetes.
About 95% of the 20,000,000 Americans with diabetes have Type
2.
Unfortunately,
a lot of people who have Type 2 diabetes don’t even realize
it until it’s too late and the damage has already
been done. Patients with heart disease might not even have
their blood sugar levels checked, and people with diabetes
may not routinely have their heart checked.
Smoking
It’s
been known for many years that smoking increases your risk
of all types of diseases. It’s a major cause of atherosclerosis,
which is when fatty substances build up in the arteries.
In patients with coronary artery disease, the arteries
become
narrowed, which decreases the supply of blood to the heart.
This can lead to angina, and may even eventually lead to
heart attack.
Peripheral
artery disease is when there is atherosclerosis in the arteries
that take blood to the
extremities. This
may cause intermittent claudication, which is a painful
cramping in the legs when the patient is walking.
It can also increase
the risk of stroke.
Smokers
are also at a much higher risk of heart attack than non-smokers.
The longer a person
smokes, the more
that risk
increases. People who smoke just one pack of cigarettes
per day have more than two times the risk of heart
attack than
non-smokers.
Physical
Inactivity
The
heart is a muscle. When muscles aren’t used much, they tend
to atrophy. That means they shrink and
aren’t as strong
as they could be. The heart can experience a similar
effect. When people don’t get a lot of exercise,
their heart can
stop working as well.
Regular
physical activity, especially aerobic exercise, can help
prevent cardiovascular
disease, heart
disease, and stroke.
Lack of physical activity is strongly linked
to cardiovascular mortality. Physical activity can
also control blood
cholesterol, diabetes, blood pressure, and it
can help prevent and
correct obesity.
Obesity
Obesity
is a major risk factor for many types of diseases. Coronary
heart disease is one
of these.
There are several
reasons why obesity can increase the risk
of heart disease. For one
thing, it can raise blood cholesterol and
triglycerides.
It
lowers HDL cholesterol, and raises LDL. It causes hypertension.
It can cause some
people to develop
diabetes, which can
significantly increase the risk of heart
attack. Even when there are no
other known risk factors, obesity alone
increase a person’s risk
of developing heart disease.
High
Cholesterol
High
cholesterol is another major risk factor in coronary heart
disease, which
can lead
to heart
attack. Although
cholesterol is necessary for many functions
in the body, having too much
of the wrong kind can lead to coronary
disease.
Low
density lipoprotein is the major carrier of cholesterol in
the blood.
If there’s
too much LDL
in the blood,
it can build up inside the arteries.
This can lead to the
formation
of a hard deposit called plaque,
and that can clog the arteries. If a blood
clot
forms near
a plaque
deposit, it can block
the blood flow to the heart and cause
a heart attack. If the clot
dislodges and blocks blood flow to
the brain, it causes a stroke.
A
level of LDL cholesterol over 160 mg/dL puts you at an increase
risk
of heart
disease. If
you already
have
heart
disease, your
cholesterol should be even lower
in an attempt to prevent a heart
attack
or
stroke.
High
Blood Pressure
High
blood pressure, also known as hypertension, usually has
no symptoms.
Many people
have it for many years
without even
knowing it. Unfortunately,
this can have devastating consequences
for
those who
have it and don’t
know. People who have prolonged
and sustained hypertension
can develop coronary heart disease,
heart failure,
stroke, kidney
failure, and
many other diseases.
Nearly
one third of American adults have high blood pressure.
It’s
very important
to get
your blood
pressure checked
regularly, even if you feel
fine. Your blood pressure
could start
to rise at any time, so you
should check
it often.
Family
History
Family
history is a seventh risk factor that’s often
overlooked - probably
because nothing
can really
be done about it.
People with a family
history of heart disease or heart
attacks are
much more likely to get
it themselves
than someone without
a family history,
even
if they have no
other risk factors
at all!
So
you should be sure to ask your family about
the
possibility
that
you have
heart disease
in your lineage.
Find out
what killed the last
several generations
of your family,
and don’t forget about
aunts, uncles,
and cousins.
Find
out how old they were when they died,
as well.
The more
you know
about your family
history,
the
more you
can prepare
for things that might
happen to you later.
Your doctor
will want
to know
about your
family’s heart health
history as well. # # # # #
SolveYourProblem.com
: 2008
> Home > Healthy
Heart
Articles : Main Page
|
